p-DEBERGERACy 


UC-NRLF 


GIFT  OF 
A.    P.   Morrison 


I  c-frp^y"      A 


CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC. 

("All  weary  with  the  earth  too  soon, 

I  took  my  flight  into  the  skies, 
Beholding  there  the  sun  and  moon 
Where  now  the  Gods  confront  my  eyes.") 

-From  a  17  th  Centtiry  Engraving  of  the  original  portrait 
by  Zacharie  Heince. 


A 

VOYAGE 
TO  THE  MOON 

BY  MONSIEUR 

CYRANO  DE 
BERGERAC 


NEW  YORK 


DOUBLEDAYandMcCLURE  Co 

M.  DCCC.XCIX. 


GIFT  OF 

.  f.      ^are/     jS  o/O 


Copyright,  1899,  by 
DOUBLED  AY  &  McCLURE  CO. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Cyrano  Bergerac,         ....  vii 

Note  on  the  Translation,     .        .        .       xxviii 

The  Translator  to  the  Reader,  i 

Title-page  of  Lovell's  Translation  of  The 
Comical  History  of.  the  States  and  Em- 
pires of  the  World  of  the  Moon  :  London, 
1687, 7 

CHAPTER 

I .  —Of  how  the  Voyage  was  Conceived,       9 
II.— Of  How  the  Author  set  out,  and 

where  he  first  arrived,          .         .15 

III. — Of  his  Conversation  with  the  Vice- 
Roy  of  New  France ;   and  of  the 
system  of  this  Universe,      .         .     22 
IV. — Of  how  at  last  he  set  out  again  for 
the   Moon,  tho  without  his  own 

Will, 37 

V. — Of  his  Arrival  there,  and  of  the 
Beauty  of  that  Country  in  which 
he  fell, 43 

VI.— Of  a  Youth  whom  he  met  there, 
and  of  their  Conversation :  what 
that  country  was,  and  the  Inhab- 
itants of  it, 51 

VII.— Being  cast  out  from  that  Country, 
of  the  new  Adventures  which  Be- 
fell him ;  and  of  the  Demon  of 
Socrates, 71 


M92335 


iv  Contents 


•CHAPTER  PAGE 

VIII.  — Of  the  Languages  of  the  People  in 
the  Moon  ;  of  the  Manner  of  Feed- 
ing there,  and  of  Paying  the  Scot ; 
and  of  how  the  Author  was  taken 
to  Court,  .  .  .  .  '  .  87 
IX. — Of  the  little  Spaniard  whom  he  met 
there,  and  of  his  quaint  Wit ;  of 
Vacuum,  Specific  Weights,  and 
sundry  other  Philosophical  Mat- 
ters,   102 

X. — Where  the  Author  comes  in  doubt, 
whether  he  be  a  Man,  an  Ape,  or 
an  Estridge ;  and  of  the  Opinion 
of  the   Lunar  Philosophers  con- 
cerning Aristotle,          .         .        .122 
XL— Of  the  Manner  of  Making  War  in 
the  Moon ;  and  of  how  the  Moon 
is  not  the  Moon,  nor  the  Earth  the 
Earth,   .         ...         .         .   129 

XII.— Of  a  Philosophical  Entertainment,   144 

XIII.— Of  the  little  Animals  that  make  up 
our  Life,  and  likewise  cause  our 
Diseases;  of  the  Disposition  of 
the  Towns  in  the  Moon,  .  .  164 

XIV.— Of  the  Original  of  All  Things;  of 
Atomes ;  and  of  the  Operation  of 

the  Senses, 174 

XV.— Of  the  Books  in  the  Moon,  and  their 
Fashion ;  of  Death,  Burial,  and 
Burning ;  of  the  Manner  of  tell- 
ing the  Time  ;  and  of  Noses,  .  192 

XVI.  — Of  Miracles ;  and  of  Curing  by  the 

Imagination,         ....  206 

XVII.— Of    the  Author's   Return  to    the 

Earth, 213 


List  of  Illustrations. 


FACE 

CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC,  .  .  Frontispiece 
CYRANO  IN  HIS  STUDY,  .  .  .  .12 
CYRANO  EN  ROUTE  FOR  THE  MOON,  .  .  40 
THE  "LITTLE  SPANIARD'S"  TRIP  TO  THE 

MOON, 104 

THE  AUTHOR'S  FLYING  MACHINE,       .         .   193 


CYRANO    BERGERAC. 

Savinien-Hercule  de  Cyrano  Berge- 
rac,  swashbuckler,  hero,  poet,  and  phi- 
losopher, came  of  an  old  and  noble  fam- 
ily, richer  in  titles  than  in  estates.  His 
grandfather  still  kept  most  of  the  titles, 
and  was  called  Savinien  de  Cyrano 
Mauvieres  Bergerac  Saint  -  Laurent. 
He  was  secretary  to  the  King  in  1571, 
and  held  other  important  offices.  Since 
there  was  no  absolute  right  of  primo- 
geniture in  those  matters,  the  names, 
as  well  as  what  was  left  of  the  proper- 
ties they  had  represented,  were  distrib- 
uted among  his  descendants.  Our  hero 
seems  to  have  received  a  fair  share  of 
the  titles ;  but  of  the  property,  nothing. 

He  was  the  fifth  among  seven  chil- 
dren, and  was  born  on  the  6th  of 
March,  1619;  not  in  1620,  as  has  been 
usually  stated.  He  was  born,  more- 
over, at  Paris,  not  in  Gascony ;  we  must, 


viii    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

alas,  admit  that  he  was  not  a  Gascon. 
He  ought  to  have  been  one,  he  cer- 
tainly deserved  to  be  one.  But  For- 
tune, who  seems  to  have  taken  pleasure 
in  always  making  him  just  miss  his  des- 
tiny, began  by  doing  him  this  first  and 
greatest  wrong  of  not  letting  him  be 
born  a  Gascon.  The  family  was  not 
even  of  distant  Gascon  origin,  but  was 
Perigourdin ;  Bergerac  itself  is  a  small 
town  near  Perigueux.  Cyrano,  how- 
ever, did  his  best  to  repair  this  as 
well  as  the  other  wrongs  of  Destiny; 
he  acquired  the  Gascon  accent,  and 
often  made  himself  pass  for  a  Gascon. 

The  fortune  of  his  early  education 
made  him  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  coun- 
try curate,  who  was  an  insufferable 
pedant  (the  species  seems  to  have  been 
common  at  that  time),  and  who  had  no 
real  scholarship  (the  two  things  are 
by  no  means  contradictory).  Cyrano 
dubbed  his  master  an  "  Aristotelic  Ass, " 
and  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  pre- 
ferred Paris. 

This  period  of  exile  had  one  very  im- 


Cyrano   Bergerac  ix 

portant  result,  however :  the  formation 
of  his  first  and  most  lasting  friendship, 
that  with  Lebret,  who  shared  in  the 
instruction  of  the  country  curate,  but 
with  a  more  docile  acceptance  of  his 
teachings.  Here  again  Fortune  seems 
to  have  played  tricks  with  Cyrano,  in 
giving  him  by  accident  for  life-long 
friend  one  who  just  missed  being  what 
a  real  friend  should  be ;  who  was  true 
and  loyal,  but  who  was  always  seeking 
to  reform  Cyrano  or  to  push  him  for- 
ward in  the  world;  who  admired  him, 
who  loved  him,  but  who  was  of  such 
opposite  nature  that  he  understood  him 
not  at  all. 

Back  at  Paris,  Cyrano  was  sent  to  the 
College  de  Beauvais — afterward  Ra- 
cine's college — where  he  completed  the 
course,  under  the  principalship  of  an- 
other pedant  named  Grangier,  who  was 
a  little  more  scholarly,  but  no  less  ridic- 
ulous than  the  first,  and  who  figures 
in  the  leading  role  of  Cyrano's  comedy 
Le  Pedant  joue.  He  lived  the  Paris 
student's  life,  burning  honest  trades- 


x       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

men's  signs  and  "doing  other  crazy 
things,"  as  his  contemporary  Talle- 
mant  des  Reaux  tells  us.  On  leaving 
college  he  started  upon  a  downward 
track,  according  to  Lebret ;  "  on  which, " 
says  the  same  good  Lebret,  "  I  dare  to 
boast  that  I  stopped  him  ...  by  com- 
pelling him  to  enter  the  company  of 
the  Guards  with  me."  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  a  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  the  paternal  allowance  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  matter;  and 
whether,  after  all,  Cyrano  felt  so  much 
repugnance  to  entering  this  company 
of  the  Guards. 

For  this  company  was  the  famous 
regiment  of  the  "garde-nobles,"  com- 
manded by  Carbon  de  Castel-Jaloux, 
a  "  triple  Gascon  "  and  a  "  triple  brave. " 
And  his  men  were  hardly  a  step  behind 
him,  all  of  them  nobles — that  was  an 
essential  condition  of  entrance — and 
almost  all  of  them  Gascons.  Cyrano, 
at  first  in  the  position  rather  of  the 
Christian  than  of  the  Cyrano  of  M. 
Rostand's  play,  by  his  gallantry  and 


Cyrano   Bergerac  xi 

wit  compelled  them  to  accept  him,  and 
even  won  among  these  "braves"  the 
titls  of  " dfmon  de  la  bravoure."  Un- 
able to  be  the  most  Gascon  of  the  Gas- 
cons, he  made  it  up  by  being  more 
Gascon  than  the  Gascons. 

Among  his  exploits  the  most  fa- 
mous is  that  of  the  fight  with  the  hun- 
dred ruffians;  for  this  appears  to  be 
not  a  dramatic  creation  or  a  legend, 
but  history.  One  of  his  poet-friends, 
Liniere  (the  name  is  sometimes  spelt 
Ligniere)  a  writer  of  epigram  and  con- 
tributor to  the  "Recueils"  or  "Keep- 
sakes "  of  the  epoch,  had  wounded  the 
susceptibilities  of  a  certain  "grand 
seigneur,"  who  planned  to  avenge  him- 
self by  the  same  method  which  another 
noble  lord,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
actually  used  against  Voltaire.  He 
posted  his  hundred  men  at  the  Porte 
de  Nesle,  to  waylay  Liniere.  Liniere, 
hearing  of  it,  came  to  take  refuge  with 
Cyrano  for  the  night.  But  Cyrano 
would  not  receive  him.  "  No,  you  shall 
sleep  at  home,"  said  he.  "Here,  take 


xii     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

this  lantern"  (this  is  M.  Brun's  ver- 
sion), "walk  behind  me  and  hold  the 
light,  and  I'll  make  bed-quilts  of  them 
for  you!"  And  the  next  morning 
there  were  found  scattered  about  the 
Porte  de  Nesle  two  dead  men,  seven 
wounded,  and  many  hats,  sticks,  and 
pikes. 

According  to  Lebret's  account,  the 
battle  took  place  in  broad  daylight,  and 
had  several  witnesses.  For  the  rest, 
his  story  coincides  with  that  above. 
And  all  versions  agree  in  saying  that 
M.  de  Cuigy  and  M.  de  Brissailles — 
both  men  of  the  time  fairly  well  known : 
one  the  son  of  an  Advocate  of  the  Par- 
liament of  Paris,  the  other  Mestre  de 
Camp  of  the  Prince  de  Conti's  regi- 
ment— bore  witness  to  the  facts;  and 
that  the  story  became  generally  known, 
and  was  never  denied.  Perhaps  it  will 
not  be  well  to  guarantee  the  exactness 
of  the  number  one  hundred;  but  the 
story  must  be  for  the  most  part  true. 

Another  exploit,  less  magnificent,  but 
perhaps  as  characteristic  of  the  wild 


Cyrano  Bergerac  xv 

a  sortie,  Cyrano  was  seriously  wounded, 
a  musket-ball  passing  through  his  body. 
Hardly  recovered  from  his  wound,  he 
rejoined  the  army  at  the  siege  of  Arras, 
in  1640;  unfortunately  for  the  story,  he 
was  probably  no  longer  with  the  cadets 
there,  but  in  the  regiment  of  the  Prince 
de  Conti.  Again  he  was  wounded,  this 
time  even  more  seriously,  with  a  sword- 
cut  in  the  throat.  And  compelled  to 
abandon  the  military  career,  he  re- 
turned to  Paris  and  took  up  his  studies 
and  his  writing. 

For  he  had  always  been  a  student 
and  a  poet.  It  is  probable  that  the 
Pedant  jou/  was  in  part  composed  dur- 
ing his  college  days.  Lebret  pictures 
him  to  us  as  studying  between  two 
duels,  and  working  at  an  Elegy  in.  all 
the  noise  of  the  regimental  barracks, 
"  aS  undistractedly  as  if  he  had  been  in 
a  quiet  study. "  He  now  joined  a  group 
of  independents  in  thought  and  life, 
naturalists  in  ethics  and  empiricists  in 
philosophy,  and  forced  his  way  into  a 
private  class  of  the  philosopher  Gas- 


xvi    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

sendi,  where  he  had  for  fellow-students 
Hesnaut,  Chapelle,  Bernier,  and  almost 
certainly  a  young  Jean-Baptiste  Poque- 
lin,  who  was  very  soon  to  take  the  name 
of  Moliere,  found  the  "  Illustre  Thea- 
tre," and  after  its  failure  start  on  a  fif- 
teen years'  tour  of  the  provinces. 

Cyrano  was  an  earnest  and  capable 
student  of  philosophy,  and  came  to  it 
with  the  fresh  interest  not  only  of  his 
own  personality,  but  of  a  young  man 
of  barely  twenty-two ;  he  naturally  im- 
posed himself  as  a  sort  of  leader  in 
the  group  of  young  "  libertins  "  or  free- 
thinkers, just  as  he  had  done  among 
the  Guards.  He  knew  well  not  only 
Gassendi,  but  also  Campanella,  and  of 
course  Descartes,  in  his  works  at  least. 
He  even  seems  to  have  read  widely 
among  the  half -philosophers,  half -occul- 
tists of  the  fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth 
centuries,  such  as  Cornelius  Agrippa, 
Jerome  Cardan,  Abbot  Tritheim,  Cesar 
de  Nostradamus,  etc.  Among  the  an- 
cients, his  first  favorites  were  Lucre- 
tius and  Pyrrho :  Pyrrho  whom  he  es- 


Cyrano   Bergerac         xvii 

pecially  admired,  "because  he  was  so 
nobly  free,  that  no  thinker  of  his  age 
had  been  able  to  enslave  his  opinions ; 
and  so  modest,  that  he  would  never 
give  final  decision  on  any  point.'" 
There  is  much  of  Cyrano  in  this  phrase, 
both  in  the  half-bold  modesty  and  in  the 
half-timid  fierceness  of  independence. 
Cyrano  shuddered  at  the  thought  of 
having  even  a  single  one  of  his  ideas 
enslaved  to  those  of  another  thinker. 
Just  as  he  had  refused  the  Marechal  de 
Gassion  for  patron  when  he  was  in  the 
Guards,  so  he  would  accept  no  one's 
magister  dixit,  no  patron  of  his  thought, 
not  even  the  Aristotle  of  the  Schools. 

The  period  of  his  life  from  1643  to 
1653  is  a  very  obscure  one.  Yet  prob- 
ably almost  all  of  his  works  were  com- 
posed during  this  time.  He  may  have 
travelled ;  there  are  traditions  and  sug- 
gestions that  he  visited  England,  Italy, 
even  Poland.  He  probably  stood  in 
danger  of  persecution  from  the  Jesuits 
on  account  of  his  philosophical  ideas, 
and  may  have  suffered  it,  as  did  his 


xviii    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

contemporaries  Campanella  and  Gali- 
leo, or,  to  mention  a  French  poet  only 
a  little  older  than  he,  Thtophile  de  Viau, 
who  was  even  condemned  to  death 
for  less  independence  than  Cyrano's; 
though  the  sentence  was  fortunately 
commuted.  He  probably  mingled 
somewhat  in  the  society  of  the  "  Pre- 
cieuses  "  of  the  time  as- well  as  in  that 
of  the  "libertins";  for  he  has  left  a 
series  of  "  Love-Letters "  which  must 
almost  exactly  have  suited  the  taste  of 
those  who  prepared  Discourses  on  the 
Tender  Passion.  He  probably  had 
many  duels  still,  for  Lebret  tells  us 
that  he  served  a  hundred  times  as  sec- 
ond— the  round  number  is  to  be  taken 
as  such — and  any  one  acquainted  with 
the  epoch,  or  with  the  Three  Musket- 
eers of  Dumas,  knows  that  the  seconds 
fought  as  well  as  the  principals.  Le- 
bret adds,  to  be  sure,  that  he  never 
had  a  quarrel  on  his  own  account,  but 
we  may  perhaps  take  this  as  a  bit 
of  the  conscientious  "white-washing" 
which  Lebret  could  not  refrain  from 


Cyrano  Bergerac          xix 

in  speaking  of  his  friend's  reputa- 
tion ;  for  we  know  enough  of  his  char- 
acter even  from  Lebret,  and  of  his  life 
from  other  sources,  to  make  a  gentle 
peacefuiness,  so  out  of  keeping  with 
the  epoch,  somewhat  doubtful;  and 
then — there  was  his  nose. 

The  Nose  is  authentic  also.  It  ap- 
pears in  all  the  portraits,  of  which  there 
are  four.  And  in  all  of  these  it  is  the 
same :  not  a  little  ugly  nose,  flat  at  the 
top  and  projecting  at  the  bottom  in  a 
little  long  gable  turned  up  at  the  end ; 
but  a  large,  generous,  well-shaped  nose, 
hooked  rather  than  retrousse,  and  plant- 
ed squarely  in  the  symmetrical  middle 
of  the  face;  not  ridiculous,  but  monu- 
mental! The  anecdotes  of  the  duels 
it  caused  are  so  many,  that  one  comes 
in  spite  of  oneself  to  believe  some  of 
them.  It  is  said  that  this  nose  brought 
death  upon  more  than  ten  persons ;  that 
one  could  not  look  upon  it,  but  he  must 
unsheathe ;  if  one  looked  away,  it  was 
worse ;  and  as  for  speaking  of  Noses, 
that  was  a  subject  which  Cyrano  re- 


xx      A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

served  for  himself,  to  do  it  fitting  honor. 
Listen  to  his  treatment  of  it  in  the 
Pedant  jout :  "  This  veridic  nose  arrives 
everywhere  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before 
its  master.  Ten  shoemakers,  good 
round  fat  ones  too,  go  and  sit  down 
to  work  under  it  out  of  the  rain."  As 
for  defending  large  noses,  as  the  index 
of  valor,  intelligence,  and  all  high  quali- 
ties, it  will  appear  in  the  Voyage  to  the 
Moon  that  he  could  do  it  as  well  with 
his  pen  as  with  his  sword. 

The  end  of  his  life  was  difficult  and 
sad.  He  was  finally  compelled  to  ac- 
cept the  patronage  of  the  Due  d'Arpa- 
jon,  for  no  man  could  live  or  even  ex- 
ist by  literature  at  that  period,  except 
as  literature  brought  patronage  or  pen- 
sions. The  great  Corneille  himself, 
than  whom  no  one  could  be  more  sim- 
ply sturdy  and  high  of  character,  wrote 
begging  letters  to  the  great  minister 
who  controlled  the  pensions  of  litera- 
ture. Cyrano  dedicated  the  edition  of 
his  "  Miscellaneous  Works"  in  1654  to 
the  Due  d'Arpajon,  in  an  epistle  which 


Cyrano  Bergerac         xxi 

fulfils,  but  with  dignity  and  indepen- 
dence, the  laws  of  the  genre,  and  accom- 
panied it  with  a  sonnet  addressed  to  the 
Duke's  daughter,  which  is  in  the  taste 
of  the  time,  yet  considerably  better  than 
the  taste  of  the  time.  Things  went 
well  till  Agrippine  appeared,  which  had 
a  "  succes  de  scandale  " ;  but  its  "  belles 
impietes,"  as  the  happy  book-seller 
called  them,  seem  to  have  pleased  the 
timidly  orthodox  Duke  less.  In  the 
meantime  Cyrano  had  received  a  wound 
from  a  falling  beam — whether  by  mere 
accident  or  not,  will  never  be  known; 
but  Cyrano  had  many  enemies,  and  it 
has  generally  been  thought  that  there 
was  purpose  behind  the  accident.  For 
whatever  reason,  the  Due  d'Arpajon 
seems  to  have  advised  Cyrano  to  leave 
him,  and  Cyrano  was  received  by  Reg- 
nault  des  Bois-Clairs,  a  friend  of  Le- 
bret.  There  he  was  kindly  cared  for 
— and  lectured  on  the  evil  of  his  past 
life — by  Lebret  and  three  women  of 
the  Convent  of  the  Daughters  of  the 
Cross:  Soeur  Hyacinthe,  an  aunt  of 


xxii    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Cyrano  himself;  Mere  Marguerite,  the 
superior  of  the  convent;  and  the  Ba- 
ronne  de  Neuvillette,  a  cousin  of  Cy- 
rano, who  was  Madeleine  Robineau, 
and  had  married  the  Baron  Christophe 
de  Neuvillette,  killed  at  the  siege  of 
Arras  in  1640.  The  three  women  per- 
suaded themselves  that  they  had  con- 
verted Cyrano  to  the  true  Church.  This 
is  doubtful,  since  he  dragged  himself 
away  to  the  country  to  die,  at  the 
house  of  the  cousin  whom  he  speaks 
of  at  the  end  of  the  Voyage  to  the 
Moon.  In  any  case,  Mere  Marguerite 
reclaimed  his  body,  and  he  was  buried 
in  holy  ground  at  the  convent. 

The  Voyage  to  the  Moon  was  not  pub- 
lished till  1656,  the  year  after  Cyrano's 
death.  It  was  certainly  written  as  early 
as  1650,  probably  in  1649.  It  had  been 
circulated  widely  in  manuscript,  and 
possibly  a  few  copies  had  been  printed, 
before  the  author's  death.  The  Voyage 
to  the  Sun,  or,  to  give  the  title  more 
accurately,  the  "  Comic  History  of  the 
States  and  Empires  of  the  Sun,"  was 


Cyrano   Bergerac        xxiii 

probably  written  immediately  after  the 
Voyage  to  the  Moon,  but  was  not  pub- 
lished till  1662.  The  History  of  the 
Spark  has  never  been  found,  unless 
that  be  the  sub-title  of  a  part  of  the 
Voyage  to  the  Sun,  as  seems  fairly  prob- 
able. 

The  Letters  of  Cyrano  are,  in  part 
at  least,  his  earliest  work.  They  were 
probably  scattered  over  a  considerable 
period  in  point  of  composition,  but 
most  of  them  were  published  in  1654. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  like  all  the 
letters  of  that  epoch  which  we  have, 
they  were  meant  to  be  read  in  company, 
in  the  salons,  or  sometimes  (like  that 
"  Against  Dassoucy"),  in  the  taverns, 
corresponding  to  the  modern  cafes, 
where  men  of  letters  gathered.  They 
were  written  not  for  the  postman,  but 
for  the  parlor ;  and  not  so  much  for  the 
parlor  as  for  the  printer.  But  even 
with  the  artificiality  of  this  method, 
and  with  the  burlesque  or  precieuse 
expression  that  was  obligatory  in  Let- 
ters at  that  time,  there  are  touches  of 


xxiv   A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

real   sincerity   and    passion    constantly 
breaking  through. 

The  Pedant  joue  is  a  prose-comedy 
in  five  acts,  made  almost  entirely  on  the 
model  of  the  Italian  "  commedia  dell' 
arte,"  a  form  in  which  Moliere's  early 
work  is  written,  and  which  was  practi- 
cally the  only  form  known  at  the  time 
when  Cyrano  wrote — for  the  play  is 
certainly  anterior  to  Corneille's  Men- 
teur.  We  have  the  almost  obligatory 
two  pairs  of  young  lovers ;  the  old  fa- 
ther who  is  tyrannical  but  easily  de- 
ceived— in  this  particular  case  combined 
with  the  pedant-doctor  type ;  the  valet 
who  does  the  deceiving,  in  the  service 
of  the  young  lovers;  and  the  terrible 
captain,  who  takes  flight  at  the  shadow 
of  danger.  Cyrano  has,  however,  in- 
troduced one  new  type — a  peasant  with 
his  dialect  and  local  characteristics:  a 
type  that  Moliere  used  to  great  advan- 
tage later,  but  hardly  so  very  much  bet- 
ter than  Cyrano  uses  it  here;  witness 
the  fact  that  a  number  of  this  peasant's 
phrases  have  become  proverbs.  The 


Cyrano   Bergerac         xxv 

famous  scene  of  "qu'allait-il  faire  dans 
cette  galere"  (despairingly  repeated  by 
the  father  who  is  compelled  to  give  up 
his  cherished  money  for  the  ransom  of 
a  son  held  in  captivity — supposedly — 
on  a  Turkish  galley)  is  exceedingly  well 
imagined,  and  Moliere  did  well  to  use 
it,  sixteen  years  after  Cyrano's  death, 
for  the  two  best  scenes  of  his  Fourberies 
de  Scapin.  It  is  not  a  matter  to  re- 
proach Moliere  with,  but  it  is  a  case  in 
which  Cyrano  should  receive  due  credit. 
The  only  serious  poetical  work  of 
Cyrano  is  his  tragedy  of  Agrippine, 
veuve  de  Germanicus,  written  at  some 
time  in  the  forties,  played  in  1653,  and 
published  in  1654.  The  statement, 
repeated  categorically  by  Mr.  Sidney 
Lee  in  his  recent  Life  of  Shakespeare, 
that  "Cyrano  de  Bergerac  plagiarized 
1  Cymbeline, ' '  Hamlet,  *  and  '  The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice  '  in  his  'Agrippina,'  " 
has  not  the  slightest  foundation.  There 
are  no  resemblances,  either  superficial 
or  essential,  on  which  to  base  it,  and  it 
is  altogether  improbable  that  Cyrano 


xxvi  A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

even  knew  of  Shakespeare's  existence. 
The  subject  of  Agrippine  is  simi- 
lar to  that  of  Corneille 's  Cinna — a 
conspiracy  under  the  Roman  Empire. 
There  are  no  resemblances  to  Cor- 
neille's  work  in  the  details  of  the  plot, 
but  in  general  spirit  the  play  is  what 
we  call  Cornelian,  partly  because  Cor- 
neille  was  the  only  one  who  possessed 
this  spirit  of  the  epoch  with  sufficient 
creative  and  individual  power  to  com- 
pel the  attention  of  posterity.  Cyrano, 
once  more,  just  missed  this.  But  his 
play  is  worthy  not  only  to  be  ranked 
with  the  best  dramas  of  any  of  his  con- 
temporaries except  Corneille,  but  even 
to  be  at  least  compared  with  Cor- 
neille's  better  work  (except  perhaps 
the  Cid  and  Polyeucte).  The  play  is 
not  thoroughly  well  constructed,  and 
so  misses  something  of  dramatic  effec- 
tiveness, though  by  no  means  miss- 
ing it  entirely;  but  it  is  as  well  con- 
structed as  Corneille 's  Cinna,  and  bet- 
ter than  his  Horace — to  take  examples 
only  among  his  greatest  plays.  It  has 
no  scene  to  compare  with  that  of  the 


Cyrano   Bergerac       xxvii 

clemency  of  Augustus  in  Cinna,  no 
character-study  so  fine  as  that  of  the 
different  sentiments  of  Augustus.  But 
it  approaches,  though  it  does  not  quite 
attain,  the  heroics  of  Horace.  It  is  full 
of  exaggeration — so  is  Corneille;  and 
of  an  exaggeration  that  sometimes  be- 
comes burlesque — as  in  Corneille;  but 
it  is  an  exaggeration  that  is  high  and 
heroic,  like  Corneille 's.  And  the  high 
and  heroic  sometimes — as  in  a  line  like 
this: 

Et  puis,  mourir  n'est  rien  ;  c'est  achever  de 
naitre — 

sometimes,  but  too  rarely,  drops  its 
exaggeration  to  become  simple  —  as 
simple  as  real  heroism,  which  is  the 
simplest  thing  in  the  world. 

Except  real  genius.  Real  genius  is, 
finally,  the  essential  thing,  which  Cy- 
rano once  more  just  missed  attaining 
— missed  just  by  the  lack  of  that  sim- 
plicity, perhaps.  But  exaggeration, 
sometimes  carried  to  the  burlesque,  is 
the  essential  trait  which  makes  him 
what  he  is ;  and  we  cannot  wish  it  away. 
CURTIS  HIDDEN  PAGE. 


NOTE   ON  THE  TRANSLATION. 

There  have  been  at  least  three  trans- 
lations into  English  of  the  Voyage  to  the 
Moon  :  that  alluded  to  on  page  i ;  the 
present  translation;  and  one  made  in 
the  eighteenth  century  by  Samuel  Der- 
rick. The  last  is  dedicated  to  the  Earl 
of  Orrery,  author  of  "  Remarks  on  the 
Life  and  Writings  of  Jonathan  Swift," 
and  attributes  its  "  call  from  obscurity  " 
to.  "your  Lordship' s  mentioning  it  in 
your  Life  of  Swift"  as  having  served 
for  inspiration  to  Gulliver's  Travels. 

Samuel  Derrick's  translation,  how- 
ever, is  not  so  good  as  that  of  A.  Lov- 
ell.  The  seventeenth  century  transla- 
tion is  more  flowery  and  fanciful,  and 
by  that  very  fact  closer  to  the  original. 
For  though  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon  is 
the  most  sober  in  style  of  Cyrano's 
works,  yet  there  are  still  many  touches 
of  the  "high  fantastical"  in  its  manner 


Note  on   the  Translation  xxix 

as  well  as  in  its  substance.  The  eigh- 
teenth century  translator  has  toned 
down  the  style  to  make  it  more  accep- 
table to  that  age  of  reason  and  regular- 
ity. It  is  still  another  case  of  the  irony 
of  Fate  pursuing  Cyrano ;  the  regular  - 
ists  of  seventeenth  century  literature 
in  France,  against  whom  he  struggled 
so  swashbucklerly,  had  completely  tri- 
umphed and  spread  their  influence  over 
Europe ;  so  that  even  in  the  land  where 
liberty  and  individuality  are  native, 
his  work  had  to  suffer  correction  in  all 
its  most  fanciful  passages.  There  are 
constant  omissions  of  phrases  or  sen- 
tences in  the  eighteenth  century  trans- 
lation, and  there  are  also  numerous 
mistakes,  as  well  as  many  points  missed. 
The  seventeenth  century  translation,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  faithful  throughout 
to  its  original,  and  accurate  as  well  as 
vivid. 

The  translation  has  been  compared 
throughout  with  the  French  of  the  edi- 
tion of  1 66 1,  and  the  two  or  three  slight 
corrections  needed  have  been  made  in 


xxx  A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

foot-notes.  Except  for  the  breaking 
up  of  some  very  long  paragraphs,  and 
slight  changes  in  punctuation  when 
necessary  for  clearness,  the  text  has 
been  reprinted  as  exactly  as  possible. 
All  changes  or  additions,  except  the 
correction  of  evident  misprints,  have 
been  bracketed. 

C.  H.  P. 


A  VOYAGE  TO  THE  MOON. 


THE 
TRANSLATOR 

TO   THE 

READER. 

It  is  now  Seven  and  Twenty  Years, 
since  the  Moon  appeared  first  Histori- 
cally on  the  English  Horizon :  *  And  let 
it  not  seem  strange,  that  she  should 
have  retained  Light  and  Brightness  so 
long  here,  without  Renovation;  when 

1  This  evidently  refers  to  an  earlier  translation 
of  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon,  published  probably  in 
1660.  The  present  editor  will  be  greatly  obliged  to 
any  one  who  will  put  him  on  the  track  of  a  copy  of 
this,  or  any  other  early  translation  from  Cyrano, 
such  as  the  "  Satyrical  Characters  and  handsome 
Descriptions,  in  Letters,  written  to  several  Persons 
of  Quality,  by  Monsieur  De  Cyrano  Bergerac. 
Translated  from  the  French,  by  a  Person  of  Honor. 
London,  1658." 
I 


2       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

we  find  t>y  Experience,  that  in  the 
HeaV£ns,'sshe 'never  fails  once  a  Month 
to  Change  arid:  shift 'her  Splendor.  For 
it  is  the  Excellency  of  Art,  to  represent 
Nature  even  in  her  absence;  and  this 
being  a  Piece  done  to  the  Life,  by  one 
that  had  the  advantage  of  the  true 
Light,  as  well  as  the  Skill  of  Drawing, 
in  this  kind,  to  Perfection;  he  left  so 
good  an  Original,  which  was  so  well 
Copied  by  another  Hand,  that  the  Pic- 
ture might  have  served  for  many  Years 
more,  to  have  given  the  Lovers  of  the 
Moon,  a  sight  of  their  Mistress,  even  in 
the  darkest  Nights;  and  when  she  was 
retired  to  put  on  a  clean  Smock  in 
Phoebus  his  Apartment;  if  they  had 
been  so  curious,  as  to  have  encouraged 
the  Exposers. 

However,  Reader,  you  have  now  a 
second  View  of  her,  and  that  under  the 
same  Cover  with  the  Sun  too,  which  is 
very  rare ;  since  these  two  were  never 
seen  before  in  Conjunction.  Yet  I 
would  have  none  be  afraid,  that  their 
Eyes  being  dazled  with  the  glorious 


Translator  to  Reader          3 

Light  of  the  Sun,  they  should  not  see 
her ;  for  Fancy  will  supply  the  Weak- 
ness of  the  Organ,  and  Imagination,  by 
the  help  of  this  Mirrour,  will  not  fail  to 
discover  them  both;  though  Cynthia 
lye  hid  under  Apollo's  shining  Mantle. 
And  so  much  for  the  Luminaries. 

Now  as  to  the  Worlds,  which,  with 
Analogy  to  ours  below,  I  may  call  the 
Old  and  New ;  that  of  the  Moon  having 
been  discovered,  tho  imperfectly,  by 
others,  but  the  Sun  owing  its  Discov- 
ery wholly  to  our  Author :  *  I  make  no 

1  Among  the  "others"  who  had  previously 
"  discovered  "  the  Moon,  Ariosto  is  the  most  promi- 
nent. In  his  Orlando  Furioso,  Astolfo  goes  to  the 
moon,  visits  the  "Valley  of  Lost  Things,"  finds 
there  many  broken  resolutions,  idlers'  days,  lovers' 
tears,  and  other  such  matters ;  and  finally  recovers 
Orlando's  lost  wits,  which  he  brings  back  to  the 
earth. 

The  Satire  Me'nippte  (1594)  gives,  in  its  Supple- 
ment, "News  from  the  Regions  of  the  Moon." 

Quevedo,  the  Spanish  satirist  and  novelist.'(i58o- 
1645),  with  whose  works  Cyrano  was  acquainted, 
also  gives  an  account  of  the  moon  in  his  Sixth 
Vision.  • 

In  England,  the  Rev.  John  Wilkins  (1614-1672), 
once  Principal  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and 
later  Bishop  of  Chester,  a  brother-in-law  of  Crom- 


4       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

doubt,  but  the  Ingenious  Reader  will 
find  in  both,  so  extraordinary  and 
surprizing  Rarities,  as  well  Natural, 
Moral,  as  Civil;  that  if  he  be  not  as 
yet  sufficiently  disgusted  with  this 
lower  World,  (which  I  am  sure  some 
are)  to  think  of  making  a  Voyage 

well,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Royal  Society, 
published  in  1638  the  "  Discovery  of  a  New  World; 
or,  a  Discourse  to  prove  it  is  probable  there  may 
be  another  habitable  world  in  the  Moon  ;  with  a 
discourse  concerning  the  possibility  of  a  passage 
thither ' '  ;  and  later,  in  1640,  the  *  *  Discourse  con- 
cerning a  new  Planet ;  tending  to  prove  it  is  prob- 
able our  earth  is  one  of  the  Planets."  These  two 
works  are  said  to  have  done  more  than  any  others 
to  popularize  the  Copernican  system  in  England. 
The  Discovery  of  a  New-  World  was  translated 
into  French  by  Jean  de  Montagne,  and  published 
at  Rouen  in  1655  or  1656.  See  Charles  Nodier, 
Melanges  extraits  d^une  petite  bibliotheque. 

Finally,  the  most  important  of  Cyrano's  prede- 
cessors in  the  discovery  of  the  moon  was  Francis 
Godwin,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Llandaff  and  later 
of  Hereford  (1562-1633).  It  was  not  till  1638,  after 
the  worthy  Bishop's  death,  and  in  the  same  year 
that  Rev.  (later  Bishop)  John  Wilkins'  Discovery  of 
a  New  World  was  published,  that  there  appeared 
his  "  Man  in  the  Moone  ;  or  a  Discourse  of  a  Voy- 
age Thither,  by  Domingo  Gonsales,  the  Speedy 
Messenger."  This  was  translated  into  French  by 
Jean  Baudoin  or  Baudouin  in  1648,  as  "L'homme 


Translator  to  Reader          5 

thither,  as  our  Author  has  done;  he 
will  at  least  be  pleased  with  his  Rela- 
tions. Nevertheless,  since  this  Age 
produces  a  great  many  bold  Wits,  that 
shoot  even  beyond  the  Moon,  and  can- 
not endure,  (no  more  than  our  Author) 
to  be  stinted  by  Magisterial  Authority, 
and  to  believe  nothing  but  what  Gray- 
headed  Antiquity  gives  them  leave :  It's 
pity  some  soaring  Virtuoso,  instead  of 
Travelling  into  France,  does  not  take  a 
flight  up  to  the  Sun ;  and  by  new  Ob- 
servations supply  the  defects  of  its  His- 
tory ;  occasioned  not  by  the  Negligence 
of  our  Witty  French  Author,  but  by 
the  accursed  Plagiary  of  some  rude 
Hand,  that  in  his  Sickness,  rifted  his 
Trunks,  and  stole  his  Papers,  as  he 
himself  complains. l 

dans  la  lime  .  .  .  voyage  .  .  .  fait  par  Dominique 
Gonzales,  avert turier  espagnol,"  and  was  well 
known  to  Cyrano,  as  we  shall  see. 

In  saying  that  "  the  sun  owes  its  discovery  wholly 
to  our  author,"  the  translator  appears  to  be  igno- 
rant of  a  work  which  Cyrano  certainly  knew :  the  Ci- 
vitas  soils  of  Campanella,  published  in  1623  as  a  part 
of  his  Realis  Philosophies  Epilogisticcz  Paries  IV. 

1  Cf.  the  last  sentence  of  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon* 


6       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Let  some  venturous  Undertaker 
auspiciously  attempt  it  then;  and  if 
neither  of  the  two  Universities,  Gres- 
ham-Colledge,  nor  Greenwich-Observa- 
tory can  furnish  him  with  an  Instru- 
ment of  Conveyance;  let  him  try  his 
own  Invention,  or  make  use  of  our  Au- 
thor's Machine:  For  our  Loss  is,  in- 
deed, so  great,  that  one  would  think, 
none  but  the  declared  Enemy  of  Man- 
kind, would  have  had  the  Malice,  to 
purloyn  and  stiffle  those  rare  Discover- 
ies, which  our  Author  made  in  the 
Province  of  the  Solar  Philosophers; 
and  which  undoubtedly  would  have 
gone  far,  as  to  the  settleing  our  Sub- 
lunary Philosophy,  which,  as  well  as 
Religion,  is  lamentably  rent  by  Sects 
and  Whimseys;  and  have  convinced 
us,  perhaps,  that  in  our  present  Doubts 
and  Perplexities,  a  little  more,  or  a 
little  less  of  either,  would  better  serve 
our  Turns,  and  more  content  our 
Minds. 


THE  7 

COMICAL    HISTORY 

OF   THE 

STATES     AND     EMPIRES 

OF   THE 

WORLD 

OF   THE 

MOON. 


Written  in  French  by 
CYRANO    BERGERAC. 

And  now  Englished  by 
A.     LOVELL.    A.M. 


LONDON, 

Printed  for  Henry  Rhodes,  next  door  to  the  Swan- 
Tavern,  near  Bride- Lane  in  Fleet- Street,  1687. 

[THE  TITLE-PAGE  OF  LOVELL'S  TRANSLATION.] 


COMICAL   HISTORY 

OF    THE 

STATES 

AND 

EM  PIRES 

.       OF   THE 

WORLD 

OF    THE 

MOON. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Of  how  the  Voyage  was  Conceived. 

I  Had  been  with  some  Friends  at 
Clamard,  a  House  near  Paris,  and 
magnificently  Entertain 'd  there  by 
Monsieur  de  Cuigy,1  the  Lord  of  it; 

1  Monsieur  de  Cuigy,  who  is  mentioned  by  Lebret 
as  a  friend  and  admirer  of  Cyrano,  and  who  was 


io     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

when  upon  our  return  home,  about 
Nine  of  the  Clock  at  Night,  the.  Air 
serene,  and  the  Moon  in  the  Full,  the 
Contemplation  of  that  bright  Lumi- 
nary furnished  us  with  such  variety 
of  Thoughts  as  made  the  way  seem 
shorter  than,  indeed,  it  was.  Our 
Eyes  being  fixed  upon  that  stately 
Planet,  every  one  spoke  what  he  thought 
of  it:  One  would  needs  have  it  be  a 
Garret  Window  of  Heaven;  another 
presently  affirmed,  That  it  was  the  Pan 
whereupon  Diana  smoothed  Apollo's 
Bands;  whilst  another  was  of  Opinion, 
That  it  might  very  well  be  the  Sun 
himself,  who  putting  his  Locks  up 
under  his  Cap  at  Night,  peeped  through 
a  hole  to  observe  what  was  doing  in 
the  World  during  his  absence. 

"And  for  my  part,  Gentlemen,"  said 
I,  "  that  I  may  put  in  for  a  share,  and 
guess  with  the  rest ;  not  to  amuse  my 

one  of  the  witnesses  of  his  famous  battle  against 
the    hundred    ruffians,    possessed    an    estate    at 
Clamart-sous-Meudon,  near  Paris.     He  appears  as 
a  character  in  M.  Rostand's   play  of  Cyrano  de : 
Bergerac. 


How  Voyage  was  Conceived    1 1 

self  with  those  curious  Notions  where- 
with you  tickle  and  spur  on  slow-paced 
Time;    I  believe,  that  the  Moon  is  a    J 
World  like  ours,  to  which  this  of  ours 
serves  likewise  for  a  Moon." 

This  was  received  with  the  general 
Laughter  of  the  Company.  "  And  per- 
haps," said  I,  "  (Gentlemen)  just  so  they 
laugh  now  in  the  Moon,  at  some  who 
maintain,  That  this  Globe,  where  we  4. 
are,  is  a  World."  But  I'd  as  good  have 
said  nothing,  as  have  alledged  to  them, 
That  a  great  many  Learned  Men  had 
been  of  the  same  Opinion ;  for  that 
only  made  them  laugh  the  faster. 

However,  this  thought,  which  be- 
cause of  its  boldness  suted  my  Humor, 
being  confirmed  by  Contradiction,  sunk 
so  deep  into  my  mind,  that  during 
the  rest  of  the  way  I  was  big  with 
Definitions  of  the  Moon  which  I  could 
not  be  delivered  of :  Insomuch  that  by 
striving  to  verifie  this  Comical  Fancy 
by  Reasons  of  appearing  weight,  I  had 
almost  perswaded  my  self  already  of 
the  truth  on't;  when  a  Miracle,  Ac- 


i  2     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

cident,  Providence,  Fortune,  or  what, 
perhaps,  some  may  call  Vision,  others 
Fiction,  Whimsey,  or  (if  you  will) 
Folly,  furnished  me  with  an  occasion 
that  engaged  me  into  this  Discourse. 
Being  come  home,  I  went  up  into  my 
Closet,  where  I  found  a  Book  open  upon 
the  Table,  which  I  had  not  put  there. 
It  was  a  piece  of  Cardanus l;  and  though 
I  had  no  design  to  read  in  it,  yet  I  fell 
at  first  sight,  as  by  force,  exactly  upon 
a  Passage  of  that  Philosopher  where 
he  tells  us,  That  Studying  one  evening 
by  Candle-light,  he  perceived  Two  tall 
old  Men  enter  in  through  the  door  that 
was  shut,  who  after  many  questions  that 
he  put  to  them,  made  him  answer,  That 
they  were  Inhabitants  of  the  Moon,  and 
thereupon  immediately  disappeared. 

i  Jerome  Cardan,  1501-1576,  natural  philosopher, 
doctor,  astrologer,  mathematician,  and  a  volumi- 
nous author ;  in  short,  a  sort  of  Italian  Paracelsus, 
both  by  his  universal  learning,  and  by  his  intense 
interest  in  all  domains  of  possible  knowledge,  in 
which  he  included  astrology  and  necromancy. 
His  most  important  work  is  the  one  referred  to 
here,  the  De  Subtilitate  Rerum,  1551. 


CYRANO  IN  HIS  STUDY. 


'—From  a  ijth  Century  Engraving 


How  Voyage  was  Conceived    i  3 

I  was  so  surprised,  not  only  to  see  a 
Book  get  thither  of  it  self ;  but  also  be- 
cause of  the  nicking  of  the  Time  so 
patly,  and  of  the  Page  at  which  it  lay 
upon,  that  I  looked  upon  that  Concate- 
nation of  Accidents  as  a  Revelation, 
discovering  to  Mortals  that  the  Moon 
is  a  World.  "  How !  "  said  I  to  my  self, 
having  just  now  talked  of  a  thing,  can 
a  Book,  which  perhaps  is  the  only 
Book  in  the  World  that  treats  of  that 
matter  so  particularly,  fly  down  from 
the  Shelf  upon  my  Table;  become 
capable  of  Reason,  in  opening  so  ex- 
actly at  the  place  of  so  strange  an  ad- 
venture ;  force  my  Eyes  in  a  manner  to 
look  upon  it,  and  then  to  suggest  to  my 
fancy  the  Reflexions,  and  to  my  Will 
the  Designs  which  I  hatch. 

"Without  doubt,"  continued  I,  "the 
Two  old  Men,  who  appeared  to  that 
famous  Philosopher,  are  the  very  same 
who  have  taken  down  my  Book  and 
opened  it  at  that  Page,  to  save  them- 
selves the  labour  of  making  to  me  the 
Harangue  which  they  made  to  Cardan. 


14       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

But,"  added  I,  "  I  cannot  be  resolved  of 
this  Doubt,  unless  I  mount  up  thither. " 
"And  why  not?"  said  I  instantly  to 
my  self.  "  Prometheus  heretofore  went 
up  to  Heaven,  and  stole  fire  from 
thence.  Have  not  I  as  much  Boldness 
as  he?  And  why  should  not  I,  then, 
expect  as  favourable  a  Success? " 


CHAPTER  II. 

Of  how   the  Author  set  out,  and  where 
he  first  arrived. 

After  these  sudden  starts  of  Imag- 
ination, which  may  be  termed,  perhaps, 
the  Ravings  of  a  violent  Feaver,  I  be- 
gan to  conceive  some  hopes  of  succeed- 
ing in  so  fair  a  Voyage :  Insomuch  that 
to  take  my  measures  aright,  I  shut  my 
self  up  in  a  solitary  Country-house; 
where  having  flattered  my  fancy  with 
some  means,  proportionated  to  my  de- 
sign, at  length  I  set  out  for  Heaven  in 
this  manner. 

I  planted  my  self  in  the  middle  of  a 
great  many  Glasses  full  of  Dew,  tied 
fast  about  me ;  *  upon  which  the  Sun  so 
violently  darted  his  Rays,  that  the 
Heat,  which  attracted  them,  as  it  does 

1  Cf.  M.  Rostand's  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,  act  III., 
scene  xi.:  "  One  way  was  to  stand  naked  in  the 


1 6     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

the  thickest  Clouds,  carried  me  up  so 
high,  that  at  length  I  found  my  self 
above  the  middle  Region  of  the  Air. 
But  seeing  that  Attraction  hurried  me 
up  with  so  much  rapidity  that  instead 
of  drawing  near  the  Moon,  as  I  in- 
tended, she  seem'd  to  me  to  be  more 
distant  than  at  my  first  setting  out ;  I 
broke  several  of  my  Vials,  until  I  found 
my  weight  exceed  the  force  of  the  At- 
traction, and  that  I  began  to  descend 
again  towards  the  Earth.  I  was  not 
mistaken  in  my  opinion,  for  some  time 
after  I  fell  to  the  ground  again ;  and  to 
reckon  from  the  hour  that  I  set  out  at, 
it  must  then  have  been  about  midnight. 
Nevertheless  I  found  the  Sun  to  be  in 
the  Meridian,  and  that  it  was  Noon.  I 
leave  it  to  you  to  judge,  in  what  Amaze- 
ment I  was;  The  truth  is,  I  was  so 
strangely  surprised,  that  not  knowing 
what  to  think  of  that  Miracle,  I  had  the 

sunshine,  in  a  harness  thickly  studded  with  glass 
phials,  each  filled  with  morning  dew.  The  sun  in 
drawing  up  the  dew,  you  see,  could  not  have  helped 
drawing  me  up  too ! ' '  (Miss  Gertrude  Hall' s  trans- 
lation.) 


How  the  Author  Set  Out    17 

insolence  to  imagine  that  in  favour  of 
my  Boldness  God  had  once  more  nailed 
the  Sun  to  the  Firmament,  to  light  so 
generous  1  an  Enterprise.  That  which 
encreased  my  Astonishment  was,  That 
I  knew  not  the  Country  where  I  was ; 
it  seemed  to  me,  that  having  mount- 
ed straight  up,  I  should  have  fallen 
down  again  in  the  same  place  I  parted 
fronio 

However,  in  the  Equipage  I  was  in,  I 
directed  my  course  towards  a  kind  of 
Cottage,  where  I  perceived  some  smoke ; 
and  I  was  not  above  a  Pistol-shot  from 
it,  when  1  saw  my  self  environed  by  a 
great  number  of  People,  stark  naked: 
They  seemed  to  be  exceedingly  sur- 
prised at  the  sight  of  me ;  for  I  was  the 
first,  (as  I  think)  that  they  had  ever 
seen  clad  in  Bottles0  Nay,  and  to  baffle 
all  the  Interpretations  that  they  could 
put  upon  that  Equipage,  they  perceived 
that  I  hardly  touched  the  ground  as  I 

J  Generous  =  noble.  Cf.  Lord  Burleigh,  Precepts 
to  his  Son  :  "  Let  her  not  be  poor,  how  generous 
soever;  for  a  man  can  buy  nothing  in  the  market 
with  gentility. ' ' 


1 8     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

walked;  for,  indeed,  they  understood 
not  that  upon  the  least  agitation  I  gave 
my  Body  the  Heat  of  the  beams  of  the 
Noon- Sun  raised  me  up  with  my  Dew; 
and  that  if  I  had  had  Vials  enough 
about  me,  it  would  possibly  have  car- 
ried me  up  into  the  Air  in  their  view. 
I  had  a  mind  to  have  spoken  to  them ; 
but  as  if  Fear  had  changed  them  into 
Birds,  immediately  I  lost  sight  of  them 
in  an  adjoyning  Forest.  However,  I 
catched  hold  of  one,  whose  Legs  had, 
without  doubt,  betrayed  his  Heart.  I 
asked  him,  but  with  a  great  deal  of  pain, 
(for  I  was  quite  choked)  how  far  they 
reckoned  from  thence  to  Paris  ?  How 
long  Men  had  gone  naked  in  France  ? 
and  why  they  fled  from  me  in  so  great 
Consternation?  The  Man  I  spoke  to 
was  an  old  tawny  Fellow,  who  presently 
fell  at  my  Feet,  and  with  lifted-up 
Hands  joyned  behind  his  Head,  opened 
his  Mouth  and  shut  his  Eyes:  He 
mumbled  a  long  while  between  his 
Teeth,  but  I  could  not  distinguish  an 
articulate  Word;  so  that  I  took  his 


How  the  Author  Set  Out   19 

Language  for  the  maffling1  noise  of  a 
Dumb-man. 

Some  time  after,  I  saw  a  Company  of 
Souldiers  marching,  with  Drums  beat- 
ing; and  I  perceived  Two  detached 
from  the  rest,  to  come  and  take  speech 
of  me.  When  they  were  come  within 
hearing,  I  asked  them,  Where  I  was? 
"You  are  in  France"  answered  they: 
"But  what  Devil  hath  put  you  into 
that  Dress?  And  how  comes  it  that 
we  know  you  not?  Is  the  Fleet  then 
arrived?  Are  you  going  to  carry  the 
News  of  it  to  the  Governor?  And  why 
have  you  divided  your  Brandy  into  so 
many  Bottles? "  To  all  this  I  made 
answer,  That  the  Devil  had  not  put  me 
into  that  Dress:  That  they  knew  me 
not ;  because  they  could  not  know  all 
Men:  That  I  knew,  nothing  of  the 
Seine' s  carrying  Ships  to  Paris :  That  I 
had  no  news  for  the  Marshal  de  V Hos- 
pital;  a  and  that  I  was  not  loaded  with 

1  Stammering,  mumbling;  a  North  of  England 
word. 

a  Paul  Lacroix,  the  editor  of  the  French  edition 
of  Cyrano's  works,  not  understanding  this  phrase, 


2o     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Brandy.  "  Ho,  ho,"  said  they  to  me, 
taking  me  by  the  Arm,  "  you  are  a  merry 
Fellow  indeed;  come,  the  Governor 
will  make  a  shift  to  know  you,  no  doubt 
on't." 

They  led  me  to  their  Company,  where 
I  learnt  that  I  was  in  reality  in  France, 
but  that  it  was  in  New-France:  So 
that  some  time  after,  I  was  presented 
before  the  Governor,  who  asked  me  my 
Country,  my  Name  and  Quality;  and 
after  that  I  had  satisfied  him  in  all 
Points,  and  told  him  the  pleasant  Suc- 
cess of  my  Voyage,  whether  he  believed 
it,  or  only  pretended  to  do  so,  he  had 
the  goodness  to  order  me  a  Chamber  in 
his  Apartment.  I  was  very  happy,  in 

has  ingeniously  invented  the  interpretation  of 
"quarantine  officer"  for  it.  Not  only  have  the 
words  never  had  this  meaning,  but  they  are  evi- 
dently a  proper  name.  And  in  fact  Francois  de 
I  Hospital,  Marechal  de  France,  was  Governor  of 
Paris  in  1649,  the  year  when  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon 
was  probably  written.  Cyrano,  thinking  he  has 
fallen  in  France,  near  Paris,  and  being  asked  if  he 
carries  news  of  the  fleet  to  the  Governor,  naturally 
answers  that  he  knows  nothing  of  ships  going  to 
Paris,  and  that  he  carries  no  news  to  the  Marechal 
de  1' Hospital. 


How  the  Author  Set  Out   21 

meeting  with  a  Man  capable  of  lofty 
Opinions,  and  who  was  not  at  all  sur- 
prised when  I  told  him  that  the  Earth 
must  needs  have  turned  during  my 
Elevation ;  seeing  that  having  begun  to 
mount  about  Two  Leagues  from  Paris, 
I  was  fallen,  as  it  were,  by  a  perpen- 
dicular Line  in  Canada. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Of  his  Conversation  with  the  Vice-Roy 
of  New  France;  and  of  the  system  of 
this  Universe. 

When  I  was  going  to  Bed  at  night,  he 
came  into  my  Chamber,  and  spoke  to 
me  to  this  purpose :  "  I  should  not  have 
come  to  disturb  your  Rest,  had  I  not 
thought  that  one  who  hath  found  out 
the  secret  of  Travelling  so  far  in 
Twelve  hours  space,  had  likewise  a 
charm  against  Lassitude.  But  you 
know  not,"  added  he,  "  what  a  pleasant 
Quarrel  I  have  just  now  had  with  our 
Fathers,  upon  your  account?  They'll 
have  you  absolutely  to  be  a  Magician ; 
and  the  greatest  favour  you  can  expect 
from  them,  is  to  be  reckoned  only  an 
Impostor:  The  truth  is,  that  Motion 
which  you  attribute  to  the  Earth '  is  a 

1  In  connection  with  this  discussion  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  nearly  two  centuries  were  re- 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  23 

pretty  nice  Paradox ;  and  for  my  part 
I'll  frankly  tell  you,  That  that  which 
hinders  me  from  being  of  your  Opin- 
ion, is,  That  though  you  parted  yester- 
day from  Paris,  yet  you  might  have  ar- 
rived today  in  this  Country  without 
the  Earth's  turning:  For  the  Sun  hav- 
ing drawn  you  up  by  the  means  of 
your  Bottles,  ought  he  not  to  have 
brought  you  hither;  since  according 
to  Ptolemy,  and  the  Modern  Phil- 
osophers,1 he  marches  obliquely,  as 
you  make  the  Earth  to  move?  And 
besides,  what  great  Probability  have 
you  to  imagine,  that  the  Sun  is  im- 
moveable,  when  we  see  it  go?  And 

quired  for  the  Copernican  system,  promulgated  in 
1543,  in  the  De  orbium  c&lestium  revolutionibus,  to 
become  generally  popularized;  and  that  in  1633, 
only  sixteen  years  before  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon 
was  written,  Galileo  had  been  compelled  by  the  -% 
Inquisition  to  deny  the  motion  of  the  earth. 

1  According  to  the  Ptolemaic  system,  still  gener- 
ally accepted  by  "modern  Philosophers"  at  the 
time  of  Cyrano's  writing,  the  fixed  stars,  the  sun, 
the  moon,  and  each  of  the  five  (then  known) 
planets,  revolved  about  the  earth  in  different 
orbits,  according  to  various  "epicycles"  and"ex- 
centrics." 


24     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

what  appearance  is  there,  that  the 
Earth  turns  with  so  great  Rapid- 
ity, when  we  feel  it  firm  under  our 
Feet?" 

"Sir,"  replied  I  to  him,  "These  are, 
in  a  manner,  the  Reasons  that  oblige 
us  to  think  so :  In  the  first  place,  it  is 
consonant  to  common  Sense  to  think 
that  the  Sun  is  placed  in  the  Center 
of  the  Universe;  seeing  all  Bodies  in 
nature  standing  in  need  of  that  radical 
Heat,  it  is  fit  he  should  reside  in  the 
heart  of  the  Kingdom,  that  he  may  be 
in  a  condition  readily  to  supply  the 
Necessities  of  every  Part ;  and  that  the 
Cause  of  Generations  should  he  placed 
in  the  middle  of  all  Bodies,  that  it 
may  act  there  with  greater  Equality 
and  Ease:  After  the  same  manner  as 
Wise  Nature  hath  placed  the  Seeds  in 
the  Center  of  Apples,  the  Kernels  in 
the  middle  of  their  Fruits;  and  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  Onion,  under  the 
cover  of  so  many  Coats  that  encompass 
it,  preserves  that  precious  Bud  from 
which  Millions  of  others  are  to  have 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  25 

their  being.  For  an  Apple  is  M  it  self  a 
little  Universe;  the  Seed,  hotter  than 
the  other  parts  thereof,  is  its  Sun, 
which  diffuses  about  it  self  that  natural 
Heat  which  preserves  its  Globe :  And 
in  the  Onion,  the  Germ  is  the  little 
Sun  of  that  little  World,  which  vivifies 
and  nourishes  the  vegetative  Salt  of 
that  little  mass.  Having  laid  down 
this,  then,  for  a  ground,  I  say,  That 
the  Earth  standing  in  need  of  the  Light, 
Heat,  and  Influence  of  this  great  Fire, 
it  turns  round  it,  that  it  may  receive  in 
all  parts  alike  that  Virtue  which  keeps 
it  in  Being.  For  it  would  be  as  ridicu- 
lous to  think,  that  that  vast  luminous 
Body  turned  about  a  point  that  it  has 
not  the  least  need  of;  as  to  imagine, 
that  when  we  see  a  roasted  Lark,  that 
the  Kitchin-fire  must  have  turned  round 
it.  Else,  were  it  the  part  of  the  Sun  to 
do  that  drudgery,  it  would  seem  that 
the  Physician  stood  in  need  of  the  Pa- 
tient ;  that  the  Strong  should  yield  to 
the  Weak;  the  Superior  serve  the  In- 
ferior ;  and  that  the  Ship  did  not  sail 


26     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

about  the  Land,  but  the    Land   about 
the  Ship. 

"  Now  if  you  cannot  easily  conceive 
how  so  ponderous  a  Body  can  move; 
Pray,  tell  me,  are  the  Stars  and  Heav- 
ens, which,  in  your  Opinion,  are  so 
solid,  any  way  lighter?  Besides,  it  is 
not  so  difficult  for  us,  who  are  assured 
of  the  Roundness  of  the  Earth,  to  infer 
its  motion  from  its  Figure :  But  why  do 
ye  suppose  the  Heaven  to  be  round, 
seeing  you  cannot  know  it,  and  that 
yet,  if  it  hath  not  this  Figure,  it  is 
impossible  it  can  move?  I  object  not 
to  you  your  Excentricks  nor  Epicycles, 1 
which  you  cannot  explain  but  very  con- 
fusedly, and  which  are  out  of  doors  in 
my  Systeme.  Let's  reflect  only  on  the 
natural  Causes  of  '  that  Motion.  To 
make  good  your  Hypothesis,  you  are 
forced  to  have  recourse  to  Spirits  or 
Intelligences,  that  move  and  govern  your 

1  The  motion  of  the  moon,  for  instance,  was  ex- 
plained in  the  Ptolemaic  system  as  an  epicycle  car- 
ried by  an  excentric;  the  centre  of  the  excentric 
moving  about  the  earth  in  a  direction  opposite  to 
that  of  the  epicycle. 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  27 

Spheres.  But  for  my  part,  without  dis- 
turbing the  repose  of  the  supreme 
Being,  who,  without  doubt,  hath  made 
Nature  entirely  perfect,  and  whose 
Wisdom  ought  so  to  have  compleated 
her,  that  being  perfect  in  one  thing,  she 
should  not  have  been  defective  in  an- 
other :  I  say,  that  the  Beams  and  Influ- 
ences of  the  Sun,  darting  Circularly 
upon  the  Earth,  make  it  to  turn  as 
with  a  turn  of  the  Hand  we  make  a 
Globe  to  move ;  or,  which  is  much  the 
same,  that  the  Steams  which  continu- 
ally evaporate  from  that  side  of  it 
which  the  Sun  shines  upon,  being 
reverberated  by  the  Cold  of  the  middle 
Region,  rebound  upon  it,  and  striking 
obliquely  do  of  necessity  make  it  whirle 
about  in  that  manner. 

"The  Explication  of  the  other  Mo- 
tions *  is  less  perplexed  still ;  for  pray, 
consider  a  little — "  At  these  words 
the  Vice-Roy  interrupted  me :  "  I  had 

1  The  French  has:  "  of  the  two  other  motions" : 
i.e.,  the  movement  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  that  of 
the  planets. 


28     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

rather,"  said  he,  "you  would  excuse 
your  self  from  that  trouble ;  for  I  have 
read  some  Books  of  Gassendus 1  on  that 
subject:  And  hear  what  one  of  our 
Fathers,  who  maintained  your  Opinion 
one  day,  answered  me.  4 Really,'  said 
he,  'I  fancy  that  the  Earth  does  move, 
not  for  the  Reasons  alledged  by  Coper- 

1  Gassendus  or  Gassendiwas  Cyrano's  own  teacher 
of  Philosophy.  Of  Provencal  origin,  and  at  first 
Professor  in  the  University  of  Aix,  he  came  to 
Paris  in  1641,  and  gave  both  private  lessons  and 
public  courses  as  Professor  of  the  College  Royal. 
It  was  in  one  of  his  private  classes  that  Cyrano 
was  a  fellow-student  with  Chapelle,  Hesnaut, 
Bernier,  and  almost  certainly  Moliere ;  the  most 
important  group  of  young  "libertms"  (£*.,  free- 
thinkers) of  the  epoch. 

Gassendi  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  the  sup- 
posedly Aristotelian  school-philosophy  of  the  time ; 
and  was  on  the  whole  the  leader  of  those  who 
in  the  seventeenth  century  followed  Epicurean 
methods  in  thought.  He  is  the  author  of  a  life 
of  Epicurus,  and  an  exposition  of  his  philosophy. 
He  was  also  an  opponent  of  Descartes,  being  the 
most  important  contemporary  supporter  of  em- 
piricism as  against  the  essentially  idealistic  method 
of  Descartes. 

He  is  important  also  as  a  popularizer  of  the 
Copernican  system,  by  his  Life  of  Copernicus,  and 
his  Institutio  Astronomica  (1647). 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  29 

nicus  ;  but  because  Hell-fire  being  shut 
up  in  the  Center  of  the  Earth,  the 
damned,  who  make  a  great  bustle  to 
avoid  its  Flames,  scramble  up  to  the 
Vault,  as  far  as  they  can  from  them,  and 
so  make  the  Earth  to  turn,  as  a  Turn- 
spit '  makes  the  Wheel  go  round  when 
he  runs  about  in  it. '  ' 

We  applauded  that  Thought,  as  being 
a  pure  effect  of  the  Zeal  of  that  good 
Father:  And  then  the  Vice-Roy  told 
me,  That  he  much  wondered,  how  the 
Systeme  of  Ptolemy,  being  so  improba- 
ble, should  have  been  so  universally 
received.  "Sir,"  said  I  to  him,  "most 
part  of  Men,  who  judge  of  all  things  by 
the  Senses,  have  suffered  themselves  to 
be  perswaded  by  their  Eyes ;  and  as  he 
who  Sails  along  a  Shoar  thinks  the 
Ship  immoveable,  and  the  Land  in  mo- 
tion; even  so  Men  turning  with  the 
Earth  round  the  Sun  have  thought  that 
it  was  the  Sun  that  moved  about  them. 

1  A  dog  trained  to  turn  a  spit,  by  running  about 
in  a  rotary  cage  attached  to  it.  The  French  has 
simply:  "as  a  dog  makes  a  wheel  turn,  when  he 
runs  about  in  it." 


30     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

To  this  may  be  added  the  unsupporta- 
ble  Pride  of  Mankind,  who  perswade 
themselves  that  Nature  hath  only  been 
made  for  them ;  as  if  it  were  likely  that 
the  Sun,  a  vast  Body  Four  hundred  and 
thirty  four  times  bigger  than  the  Earth, l 
had  only  been  kindled  to  ripen  their 
Medlars  and  plumpen  their  Cabbage. 

"  For  my  part,  I  am  so  far  from  com- 
plying with  their  Insolence,  that  I  be- 
lieve the  Planets  are  Worlds  about  the 
Sun,  and  that  the  fixed  Stars  are  also 
Suns  which  have  Planets  about  them, 
that's  to  say,  Worlds,  which  because  of 
their  smallness,  and  that  their  borrowed 
light  cannot  reach  us,  are  not  discern- 
able  by  Men  in  this  World :  For  in  good 
earnest,  how  can  it  be  imagined  that 
such  spacious  Globes  are  no  more  but 
vast  Desarts ;  and  that  ours,  because  we 
live  in  it,  hath  been  framed  for  the  habi- 
tation of  a  dozen  of  proud  Dandyprats? 

1  Cyrano  had  probably  learned  this  from  his 
master  Gassendi.  Cf.  his  "Epistola  XX.  de  ap- 
parente  magnitudine  solis,"  1641.  Modern  Gas- 
sen  dis  say  the  sun  is  1,300,000  times  greater  than 
the  earth  in  volume,  316,000  times  in  mass. 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  3  i 

How,  must  it  be  said,  because  the  Sun 
measures  our  Days  and  Years,  that  it 
hath  only  been  made  to  keep  us  from 
running  our  Heads  against  the  Walls? 
No,  no,  if  that  visible  Deity  shine  upon 
Man,  it's  by  accident,  as  the  King's 
Flamboy  by  accident  lightens  a  Porter 
that  walks  along  the  Street:  " 

uBut,"  said  he  to  me,  "[if,]  as  you 
affirm,  the  fixed  Stars  be  so  many  Suns, 
it  will  follow  that  the  World  is  infinite ; 
seeing  it  is  probable  that  the  People  of 
that  World  which  moves  about  that 
fixed  Star  you  take  for  a  Sun,  discover 
above  themselves  other  fixed  Stars, 
which  we  cannot  perceive  from  hence, 
and  so  others  in  that  manner  in  inji- 
nitum." 

"Never  question,"  replied  I,  "but  as 
God  could  create  the  Soul  Immortal,  He 
could  also  make  the  World  Infinite ;  if 
so  it  be,  that  Eternity  is  nothing  else 
but  an  illimited  Duration,  and  an  infi- 
nite, a  boundless  Extension :  And  then 
God  himself  would  be  Finite,  supposing 
the  World  not  to  be  infinite ;  seeing  he 


32     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

cannot  be  where  nothing  is,  and  that  he 
could  not  encrease  the  greatness  of  the 
World  without  adding  somewhat  to  his 
own  Being,  by  beginning  to  exist 
where  he  did  not  exist  before.  We 
must  believe  then,  that  as  from  hence 
we  see  Saturn  and  Jupiter ;  if  we  were 
in  either  of  the  Two,  we  should  dis- 
cover a  great  many  Worlds  which  we 
perceive  not;  and  that  the  Universe 
extends  so  in  infinitum." 

"  I'  faith;"  replied  he,  "when  you  have 
said  all  you  can,  I  cannot  at  all  compre- 
hend that  Infinitude. "  "  Good  now, "  re- 
plied I  to  him,  "  do  you  comprehend  the 
Nothing  that  is  beyond  it?  Not  at  all. 
For  when  you  think  of  that  Nothing, 
you  imagine  it  at  least  to  be  like  Wind 
or  Air,  and  that  is  a  Being :  But  if  you 
conceive  not  an  Infinite  in  general,  you 
comprehend  it  at  least  in  particulars; 
seeing  it  is  not  difficult  to  fancy  to  our 
selves,  beyond  the  Earth,  Air,  and  Fire 
which  we  see,  other  Air,  and  other 
Earth,  and  other  Fire.  Now  Infinitude 
is  nothing  else  but  a  boundless  Series 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  33 

of  all  these.  But  if  you  ask  me,  How 
these  Worlds  have  been  made,  seeing 
Holy  Scripture  speaks  only  of  one  that 
God  made?  My  answer  is,  That  I  have 
no  more  to  say :  For  to  oblige  me  to 
give  a  Reason  for  every  thing  that 
comes  into  my  Imagination,  is  to  stop 
my  Mouth,  and  make  me  confess  that 
in  things  of  that  nature  my  Reason 
shall  always  stoop  to  Faith." 

He  ingeniously l  acknowledged  to 
me  that  his  Question  was  to  be  censured, 
but  bid  me  pursue  my  notion :  So  that 
I  went  on,  and  told  him,  That  all  the 
other  Worlds,  which  are  not  seen,  or  but 
imperfectly  believed,  are  no  more  but 
the  Scum  that  purges  out  of  the  Suns. 
For  how  could  these  great  Fires  subsist 
without  some  matter,  that  served  them 
for  Fewel?  Now  as  the  Fire  drives 
from  it  the  Ashes  that  would  stifle  it,  or 
the  Gold  in  a  Crucible  separates  from 
the  Marcasite  a  and  Dross,  and  is  refined 

1  Ingenuously.    The  two  words  were  interchange- 
able in  the  seventeenth  century. 

2  Iron  pyrites. 

3 


34     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

to  the  highest  Standard;  nay,  and  as 
our  Stomack  discharges  it  self  by  vomit, 
of  the  Crudities  that  oppress  it ;  even 
so  these  Suns  daily  evacuate,  and  reject 
the  Remains  of  matter  that  might  in- 
commode their  Fire:  But  when  they 
have  wholly  consumed  that  matter 
which  entertains  l  them ;  you  are  not  to 
doubt,  but  they  spread  themselves 
abroad  on  all  sides  to  seek  for  fresh 
Fewel,  and  fasten  upon  the  Worlds 
which  heretofore  they  have  made,  and 
particularly  upon  those  that  are  near- 
est :  Then  these  great  Fires,  reconcoct- 
ing  all  the  Bodies,  will  as  formerly 
force  them  out  again,  Pell-mell,  from  all 
parts ;  and  being  by  little  and  little  pu- 
rified, they'll  begin  to  serve  for  Suns 
to  other  little  Worlds,  which  they  pro- 
create by  driving  them  out  of  their 
Spheres:  And  that  without  doubt, 
made  the  Pythagoreans  foretel  the  uni- 
versal Conflagration. 


Supports,  feeds;  cf.  Shakspere,  Richard  HI. 

jlass, 
tailors. " 


"  I'll  be  at  charges  for  a  looking-glass, 
And  entertain  a  score  or  two  of  t 


Conversation  with  Vice-Roy  35 

"This  is  no  ridiculous  Imagination, 
for  New-France  where  we  are,  gives  us 
a  very  convincing  instance  of  it.  The 
vast  Continent  of  America  is  one  half 
of  the  Earth,  which  in  spight  of  our 
Predecessors,  who  a  Thousand  times 
had  cruised  the  Ocean,  was  not  at  that 
time  discovered:  Nor,  indeed,  was  it 
then  in  being,  no  more  than  a  great 
many  Islands,  Peninsules,  and  Moun- 
tains that  have  since  started  up  in  our 
Globe,  when  the  Sun  purged  out  its 
Excrements  to  a  convenient  distance, 
and  of  a  sufficient  Gravity  to  be  at- 
tracted by  the  Center  of  our  World; 
either  in  small  Particles,  perhaps,  or, 
it  may  be  also,  altogether  in  one  lump. 
That  is  not  so  unreasonable  but  that  St. 
Austin*  would  have  applauded  to  it,  if 
that  Country  had  been  discovered  in  his 
Age.  Seeing  that  great  Man,  who  had 
a  very  clear  Wit,  assures  us,  That  in  his 
time  the  Earth  was  flat  like  the  floor 
of  an  Oven,  and  that  it  floated  upon  the 
Water,  like  the  half  of  an  Orange :  But 

1  St.  Augustine. 


36       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

if  ever  I  have  the  honour  to  see  you  in 
France,  I'll  make  you  observe,  by  means 
of  a  most  excellent  Celescope,  that 
some  Obscurities,  which  from  hence 
appear  to  be  Spots,  are  Worlds  a  form- 
ing. " 

My  Eyes  that  shut  with  this  Dis- 
course, obliged  the  Vice-Roy  to  with- 
draw. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Of  how  at  last  he  set  out  again  for  the 
Moon,  tho  without  his  own  Will. 

Next  Day,  and  the  Days  follow- 
ing, we  had  some  Discourses  to  the 
same  purpose:  But  some  time  after, 
since  the  hurry  of  Affairs  suspended 
our  Philosophy,  I  fell  afresh  upon  the 
design  of  mounting  up  to  the  Moon. 

So  soon  as  she  was  up,  I  walked 
about  musing  in  the  Woods,  how  I 
might  manage  and  succeed  in  my  En- 
terprise; arid  at  length  on  St.  John's^ 
Eve,  when  they  were  at  Council  in  the 
Fort,  whether  they  should  assist  the 
Wild  Natives  of  the  Country  against  the 
Iroqueans ;  I  went  all  alone  to  the  top 
of  a  little  Hill  at  the  back  of  our  Habi- 
tation, where  I  put  in  Practice  what  you 

1  The  Feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  June  24. 


38     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

shall  hear.  I  had  made  a  Machine 
which  I  fancied  might  carry  me  up  as 
high  as  I  pleased,  so  that  nothing  seem- 
ing to  be  wanting  to  it,  I  placed  my 
self  within,  and  from  the  Top  of  a 
Rock  threw  my  self  in  the  Air:  But 
because  I  had  not  taken  my  measures 
aright,  I  fell  with  a  sosh  in  the  Valley 
below. 

Bruised  as  I  was,  however,  I  re- 
turned to  my  Chamber  without  loos- 
ing courage,  and  with  Beef -Marrow  I 
anointed  my  Body,  for  I  was  all  over 
mortified  from  Head  to  Foot:  Then 
having  taken  a  dram  of  Cordial  Waters 
to  strengthen  my  Heart,  I  went  back  to 
look  for  rny  Machine ;  but  I  could  not 
find  it,  for  some  Soldiers,  that  had  been 
sent  into  the  Forest  to  cut  wood  for  a 
Bonefire,  meeting  with  it  by  chance, 
had  carried  it  with  them  to  the  Fort: 
Where  after  a  great  deal  of  guessing 
what  it  might  be,  when  they  had  dis- 
covered the  invention  of  the  Spring, 
some  said,  that  a  good  many  Fire- 
Works  should  be  fastened  to  it,  because 


Out  Again  for  the  Moon   39 

their  Force  carrying  them  up  on  high, 
and  the  Machine  playing  its  large 
Wings,  no  Body  but  would  take  it  for  a 
Fiery  Dragon.  In  the  mean  time  I  was 
long  in  search  of  it,  but  found  it  at 
length  in  the  Market-place  of  Kebeck 
(Quebec),  just  as  they  were  setting 
Fire  to  it.  I  was  so  transported  with 
Grief,  to  find  the  Work  of  my  Hands 
in  so  great  Peril,  that  I  ran  to  the 
Souldier  that  was  giving  Fire  to  it, 
caught  hold  of  his  Arm,  pluckt  the 
Match  out  of  his  Hand,  and  in  great 
rage  threw  my  self  into  my  Machine, 
that  I  might  undo  the  Fire-Works  that 
they  had  stuck  about  it;  but  I  came 
too  late,  for  hardly  were  both  my  Feet 
within,  when  whip,  away  went  I  up  in  a 
Cloud. 

The  Horror  and  Consternation  I  was 
in  did  not  so  confound  the  faculties 
of  my  Soul,  but  I  have  since  remem- 
bered all  that  happened  to  me  at  that 
instant.  For  so  soon  as  the  Flame  had 
devoured  one  tier  of  Squibs,  which 
were  ranked  by  six  and  six,  by  means  of 


40     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

a  Train  that  reached  every  half-dozen, 
another  tier  went  off,  and  then  anoth- 
er; *  so  that  the  Salt-Peter  taking  Fire, 
put  off  the  danger  by  encreasing  it. 
However,  all  the  combustible  matter 
being  spent,  there  was  a  period  put  to 
the  Fire-work;  and  whilst  I  thought  of 
nothing  less  than  to  knock  my  Head 
against  the  top  of  some  Mountain,  I 
felt,  without  the  least  stirring,  my  ele- 
vation continuing;  and  adieu  Machine, 
for  I  saw  it  fall  down  again  towards  the 
Earth. 

That  extraordinary  Adventure  puffed 
up  my  Heart  with  so  uncommon  a 
Gladness;  that,  ravished  to  see  my 
self  delivered  from  certain  danger,  I 
had  the  impudence  to  philosophize  upon 
it.  Whilst  then  with  Eyes  and  Thought 
I  cast  about  to  find  what  might  be  the 
cause  of  it,  I  perceived  my  flesh  blown 

1  Cf.  the  play  of  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,  act  III., 
scene  xi. :  "Or  else,  mechanic  as  well  as  artificer, 
I  could  have  fashioned  a  giant  grasshopper,  with 
steel  joints,  which,  impelled  by  successive  explo- 
sions of  saltpetre,  would  have  hopped  with  me  to 
the  azure  meadows  where  graze  the  starry  flocks." 


CYRANO  en  route  FOR  THE  MOON. 

—From  a  ijtk  Century  Engraving. 


Out  Again  for  the  Moon  41 

up,  and  still  greasy  with  the  Marrow, 
that  I  had  daubed  my  self  over  with 
for  the  Bruises  of  my  fall :  I  knew  that 
the  Moon  being  then  in  the  Wain,  and 
that  it  being  usual  for  her  in  that  Quar- 
ter to  suck  up  the  Marrow  of  Animals, 
she  drank  up  that  wherewith  I  was 
anointed,  with  so  much  the  more  force 
that  her  Globe  was  nearer  to  me,  and 
that  no  interposition  of  Clouds  weak- 
ened her  Attraction. l 

When  I  had,  according  to  the  compu- 
tation I  made  since,  advanced  a  good 
deal  more  than  three  quarters  of  the 
space  that  divided  the  Earth  from  the 
Moon;  all  of  a  sudden  I  fell  with  my 
Heels  up  and  Head  down,  though  I 
had  made  no  Trip ;  and  indeed,  I  had 
not  been  sensible  of  it,  had  not  I  felt 
my  Head  loaded  under  the  weight  of 
my  Body :  The  truth  is,  I  knew  very 
well  that  I  was  not  falling  again  tow- 

i  C/".,  in  the  play,  the  fifth  of  Cyrano's  means  for 
scaling  the  sky:  "Since  Phcebe,  the  moon-god- 
dess, when  she  is  at  wane,  is  greedy,  O  beeves! 
of  your  marrow,  .  .  .  with  that  marrow  have  be- 
smeared myself ! ' ' 


42     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

ards  our  World ;  for  though  I  found  my 
self  to  be  betwixt  two  Moons,  and  eas- 
ily observed,  that  the  nearer  I  drew  to 
the  one,  the  farther  I  removed  from  the 
other ;  yet  I  was  certain,  that  ours  was 
the  bigger  Globe  of  the  two :  Because 
after  one  or  two  days  Journey,  the  re- 
mote Refractions  of  the  Sun,  confound- 
ing the  diversity  of  Bodies  and  Cli- 
mates, it  appeared  to  me  only  as  a  large 
Plate  of  Gold :  That  made  me  imagine, 
that  I  byassed l  towards  the  Moon ;  and 
I  was  confirmed  in  that  Opinion,  when 
I  began  to  call  to  mind,  that  I  did  not 
fall  till  I  was  past  three  quarters  of  the 
way.  For,  said  I  to  my  self,  that  Mass 
being  less  than  ours,  the  Sphere  of  its 
Activity  must  be  of  less  Extent  also ; 
and  by  consequence,  it  was  later  before 
I  felt  the  force  of  its  Center. 

1  The  translator  has  apparently  misread  biaisais 
where  the  French  editions  have  baissais :  i.e.,  I 
was  descending  toward  the  moon. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Of  his  Arrival  there,  and  of  the  Beauty 
of  that  Country  in  which  he  fell. 

In  fine,  after  I  had  been  a  very  long 
while  in  falling,  as  I  judged,  for  the 
violence  of  my  Precipitation  hindered 
me  from  observing  it  more  exactly: 
The  last  thing  I  can  remember  is,  that 
I  found  my  self  under  a  Tree,  entangled 
with  three  or  four  pretty  large  Branch- 
es which  I  had  broken  off  by  my  fall; 
and  my  face  besmeared  with  an  Apple, 
that  had  dashed  against  it. 

By  good  luck  that  place  was,  as  you   / 
shall  know  by  and  by  ******  i     $o 

1  "That  place  was,"  unquestionably,  the  Garden  I 
of  Eden,  which  Cyrano  heretically  locates  in  the 
Moon;  and  the  "Tree"  turough  which  he  has 
fallen,  and  an  "Apple"  of  which  has  besmeared 
his  face  and  recalled  him  to  life,  is  the  Tree  of 
Life,  that  stood  "in  the  midst  of  the  garden." 

This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  hiatuses,  which 
occur  in  all  the  French  editions  as  well  as  the  Eng- 


44     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

that  you  may  very  well  conclude,  that 
had  it  not  been  for  that  Chance,  if  I  had 

lish,  and  which  are  marked  by  those  stars  that 
Cyrano  refers  to  in  the  play:  "But  I  intend  set- 
ting all  this  down  in  a  book,  and  the  golden  stars 
I  have  brought  back  caught  in  my  shaggy  mantle, 
when  the  book  is  printed,  will  be  seen  serving  as 
asterisks." 

Lebret  speaks  of  these  gaps  in  his  preface,  say- 
ing he  would  have  tried  to  fill  them  but  for  fear  of 
mixing  his  style  with  Cyrano's:  "For  the  melan- 
choly colour  of  my  style  will  not  let  me  imitate  the 
gayety  of  his;  nor  can  my  Wit  follow  the  fine 
flights  of  his  Imagination." 

It  seems  altogether  improbable,  however,  that 
Cyrano  himself  left  the  work  thus  incomplete,  as 
Lebret  would  imply.  And  in  fact  we  can  supply 
from  a  Manuscript  recently  acquired  (1890)  by  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  a  long  passage  not  printed 
by  Lebret  (see  pp.  60  ff.).  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  passages  were  deliberately  cut  out  by  some 
one  on  account  of  their  "  heretical "  character.  It 
even  seems  probable,  from  passages  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Voyage  to  the  Stm,  that  when  the  work 
was  circulated  in  Manuscript,  Cyrano  had  been  the 
object  of  persecution  on  account  of  them. 

The  passages  lacking  were  cut  out  then — but  by 
whom?  The  usually  accepted  opinion  is  that  of 
our  English  translator,  who  says  the  gaps  are 
' l  occasioned,  not  by  tfre  Negligence  of  our  Witty 
French  Author,  but  by  the  accursed  Plagiary  of 
some  rude  Hand,  that  in  his  sickness  rifted  his 
Trunks  and  stole  his  Papers,  as  he  himself  com- 
plains." M.  Brun  has  suggested,  however,  and 


Of  his  Arrival  There       45 

had  a  thousand  lives,  they  had  been  all 
lost.  I  have  many  times  since  reflected 
upon  the  vulgar  Opinion,  That  if  one 
precipitate  himself  from  a  very  high 
place,  his  breath  is  out  before  he  reach 
the  ground ;  and  from  my  adventure  I 
conclude  it  to  be  false,  or  else  that  the 
efficacious  Juyce  of  that  Fruit,1  which 
.squirted  into  my  mouth,  must  needs 
have  recalled  my  soul,  that  was  not  far 
from  my  Carcass,  which  was  still  hot 
and  in  a  disposition  of  exerting  the 
Functions  of  Life.  The  truth  is,  so 

with  some  plausibility,  that  Lebret  himself  was 
responsible  for  the  omissions;  and  that  he  thus 
continued,  after  Cyrano's  death,  his  lifelong  at- 
tempts at  reforming  and  toning  down  the  impolitic, 
unorthodox  notions  of  his  too-independent  friend. 
So  Cyrano  was  conquered  once  more  in  his  battle 
with  "les  Compromis,  les  Prejuges,  les  Lachetes," 
and  finally  "la  Sottise  " : 

"  Je  sais  bien  qu'  a  la  fin  vous  me  mettrez  a  bas; 
N'importe!  je  me  bats,  je  me  bats,  je  me  bats!" 

We  are  proud  of  printing  for  the  first  time  in  any 
edition  of  the  Voyage  to  the  Moon,  at  least  a  part  of 
what  had  been  cut  out ;  and  of  being  able  to  indi- 
cate for  the  first  time  what  must  have  been  the 
substance  of  the  other  lost  passages,  and  what  is 
the  sense  of  the  fragments  preserved. 

1  The  Apple  of  the  Tree  of  Life. 


46     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

soon  as  I  was  upon  the  ground  my  pain 
was  gone,  before  I  could  think  what  it 
was ;  and  the  Hunger,  which  I  felt  dur- 
y  ing  my  Voyage,  was  fully  satisfied  with 
the  sense  that  I  had  lost  it. l 

When  I  was  got  up,  I  had  hardly 
taken  notice  of  the  largest  of  Four 
great  Rivers,  which  by  their  conflux 
make  a  Lake;  when  the  Spirit,  or  in- 
visible Soul,  of  Plants  that  breath  upon 
that  Country,  refreshed  my  Brain  with 
a  delightful  smell:  And  I  found  that 
the  Stones  there  were  neither  hard  nor 
rough ;  but  that  they  carefully  softened 
themselves  when  one  trode  upon  them. 
2 1  presently  lighted  upon  a  Walk  with 
five  Avenues,  in  figure  like  to  a  Star ; 
the  Trees  whereof  seemed  to  reach  up 

1  The  translation  is  not  fully  adequate  here ;  the 
French  means :  u .  .  .  was  fully  satisfied,  and  left 
me  in  its  place  only  a  slight  memory  of  having 
lost  it." 

2  This  beautiful  Nature-description,  the  like  of 
which  cannot  be  found  in  all  seventeenth-century 
French  literature  outside  of  Cyrano's  works,  was 
apparently  his  favorite  passage,  since  it  is  the  only 
one  he  has  used  twice.     Cf.  his  Lettre  XI.,  "  D'une 
maison  de  campagne." 


Of  his  Arrival  There       47 

to  the  Skie,  a  green  plot  of  lofty  Boughs : 
Casting  up  my  Eyes  from  the  root  to 
the  top,  and  then  making  the  same  Sur- 
vey downwards,  I  was  in  doubt  whether 
the  Earth  carried  them,  or  they  the 
Earth,  hanging  by  their  Roots :  Their 
high  and  stately  Forehead  seemed  also 
to  bend,  as  it  were  by  force,  under  the 
weight  of  the  Celestial  Globes;  and 
one  would  say,  that  their  Sighs  and  out- 
stretched Arms,  wherewith  they  em- 
braced the  Firmament,  demanded  of 
the  Stars  the  bounty  of  their  purer  In- 
fluences before  they  had  lost  any  thing 
of  their  Innocence  in  the  contagious 
Bed  of  the  Elements.  The  Flowers 
there  on  all  hands,  without  the  aid  of 
any  other  Gardiner  but  Nature,  send 
out  so  sweet  (though  wild)  a  Perfume, 
that  it  rouzes  and  delights  the  Smell : 
There  the  incarnate  of  a  Rose  upon  the 
Bush,  and  the  lively  Azure  of  a  Violet 
under  the  Rushes,  captivating  the 
Choice,  make  each  of  themselves  to  be 
judged  the  Fairest:  There  the  whole 
Year  is  Spring;  there  no  poysonous 


48     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Plant  sprouts  forth,  but  is  as  soon  de- 
stroyed ;  there  the  Brooks  by  an  agree- 
able murmuring,  relate  their  Travels  to 
the  Pebbles ;  there  Thousands  of  Quir- 
isters  make  the  Woods  resound  with 
their  melodious  Notes ;  and  the  quaver- 
ing Clubs  of  these  divine  Musicians  are 
so  universal,  that  every  Leaf  of  the 
Forest  seems  to  have  borrowed  the 
Tongue  and  shape  of  a  Nightingale; 
nay,  and  the  Nymph  Eccho  is  so  delight- 
ful1 with  their  Airs,  that  to  hear  her 
repeat,  one  would  say,  She  were  sollici- 
tous  to  learn  them.  On  the  sides  of 
that  Wood  are  Two  Meadows,  whose 
continued  Verdure  seems  an  Emerauld 
reaching  out  of  sight.  The  various 
Colours,  which  the  Spring  bestows  upon 
the  numerous  little  Flowers  that  grow 
there,  so  delightfully  confounds  and 
mingles  their  Shadows,  that  it  is  hard 
to  be  known,  whether  these  Flowers 
shaken  with  a  gentle  Breeze  pursue 
themselves,  or  fly  rather  from  the  Ca- 
resses of  the  Wanton  Zephyrus ;  .one 

i  In  the  literal  sense,  full  of  delight,  delighted. 


Of  his  Arrival  There       49 

would  likewise  take  that  Meadow  for  an 
Ocean,  because,  as  the  Sea,  it  presents 
no  Shoar  to  the  view ;  insomuch,  that 
mine  Eye  fearing  it  might  lose  it  self, 
having  roamed  so  long,  and  discovered 
no  Coast,  sent  my  Thoughts  presently 
thither;  and  my  Thoughts,  imagining 
it  to  be  the  end  of  the  World,  were 
willing  to  be  pers waded,  that  such 
charming  places  had  perhaps  forced 
the  Heavens  to  descend  and  join  the 
Earth  there.  In  the  midst  of  that  vast 
and  pleasant  Carpet,  a  rustick  Fountain 
bubbles  up  in  Silver  Purles,  crowning 
its  enamelled  Banks  with  Sets  of  Vio- 
lets, and  multitudes  of  other  little 
Flowers,  that  seem  to  strive  which 
shall  first  behold  it  self  in  that  Chrystal 
Myrroir :  It  is  as  yet  in  the  Cradle,  be- 
ing but  newly  Born,  and  its  Young  and 
smooth  Face  shews  not  the  least  Wrin- 
kle. The  large  Compasses  it  fetches, 
in  circling  within  it  self,  demonstrate 
its  unwillingness  to  leave  its  native 
Soyl :  And  as  if  it  had  been  ashamed  to 
be  caressed  in  presence  of  its  Mother, 


50       A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

with  a  Murmuring  it  thrust  back  my 
hand  that  would  have  touched  it :  The 
Beasts  that  came  to  drink  there,  more 
rational  than  those  of  our  World, 
seemed  surprised  to  see  it  day  upon  the 
Horizon,  whilst  the  Sun  was  with  the 
Antipodes ;  and  durst  not  bend  down- 
wards upon  the  Brink,  for  fear  of  fall- 
ing into  the  Firmament. 

I  must  confess  to  you,  That  at  the 
sight  of  so  many  Fine  things,  I  found 
my  self  tickled  with  these  agreeable 
Twitches,  which  they  say  the  Embryo 
feels  upon  the  infusion  of  its  Soul :  My 
old  Hair  fell  off,  and  gave  place  for 
thicker  and  softer  Locks :  I  perceived 
my  Youth  revived,  my  face  grow  rud- 
dy, my  natural  Heat  mingle  gently 
again  with  my  radical  Moisture :  And 
in  a  word,  I  grew  younger  again  by  at 
least  Fourteen  Years. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Of  a  Youth  whom  he  met  there,  and  of 
their  Conversation  :  what  that  country 
was,  and  the  Inhabitants  of  it. 

I  had  advanced  half  a  League, 
through  a  Forest  of  Jessamines  and 
Myrtles,  when  I  perceived  something 
that  stirred,  lying  in  the  .Shade :  It  was 
a  Youth,  whose  Majestick  Beauty 
forced  me  almost  to  Adoration.  He 
started  up  to  hinder  me ;  crying,  "  It  is 
not  to  me  but  to  God  that  you  owe 
these  Humilities. "  "  You  see  one, "  an- 
swered I,  "  stunned  with  so  many  Won- 
ders that  I  know  not  what  to  admire 
most ;  for  coming  from  a  World,  which 
without  doubt  you  take  for  a  Moon 
here,  I  thought  I  had  arrived  in  anoth- 
er, which  our  Worldlings  call  a  Moon 
also ;  and  behold  I  am  in  Paradice  at 
the  Feet  of  a  God,  who  will  not  be 


52     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Adored."  "  Except  the  quality1  of  a 
God,"  replied  he,  "whose  Creature  I 
only  am,  the  rest  you  say  is  true :  This 
Land  is  the  Moon,  which  you  see  from 
your  Globe,  and  this  place  where  you 
are  is  *  *  '*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  " 2 
"Now  at  that  time  Man's  Imagina- 
tion was  so  strong,  as  not  being  as  yet 
corrupted,  neither  by  Debauches,  the 
Crudity  of  Aliments,  nor  the  altera- 
tions of  Diseases,  that  being  excited  by 
a  violent  desire  of  coming  to  this  Sanc- 
i  tuary,  and  his  Body  becoming  light 
through  the  heat  of  this  Inspiration; 
he  was  carried  thither  in  the  same  man- 

1  u  Quality"  =  title -,  as  often   in  the  seventeenth 
century;  cf.  Shakspere,  Henry  V.: 

"  Gentlemen  of  blood  and  quality." 

2  Probably  a  long  passage  has  been  lost  here,  in 
which  the  "Youth  "  (the  Prophet  Elijah,  who  had 
"translated"  himself  hither  and  become  young  by 
eating  of  the  Tree  of    Life)  describes  the  place 
where  they  are  as  the  original  Garden  of  Eden ; 
and  tells  of  the  Creation,  the  Fall,  and  the  Ban- 
ishment of  Adam  and  Eve.     At  the  beginning  of 
the  next  paragraph  he  is  still  speaking,  and  tell- 
ing of  Adam's  transference  from  the  Moon  to  the 
Earth. 


A  Youth  He  Met  There   53 

ner,  as  some  Philosophers,  who  having 
fixed  their  Imagination  upon  the  con- 
templation of  a  certain  Object  have 
sprung  up  in  the  Air  by  Ravishments, 
which  you  call  Extasies.  The  Woman, 
who  through  the  infirmity  of  her  Sex 
was  weaker  and  less  hot,  could  not, 
without  doubt,  have  the  imagination 
strong  enough  to  make  the  Intension 
of  her  Will  prevail  over  the  Ponder- 
ousness  of  her  Matter;  but  because 
there  were  very  few  *  *  *  *  the 
Sympathy  which  still  united  that  half 
to  its  whole,1  drew  her  towards  him  as 
he  mounted  up,  as  the  Amber  attracts 
the  Straw,  [as]  the  Load-stone  turns 
towards  the  North  from  whence  it 
hath  been  taken,  and  drew  to  him  that 
part  of  himself,  as  the  Sea  draws  the 
Rivers  which  proceed  from  it.  When 
they  arrived  in  your  Earth,  they  dwelt 
betwixt  Mesopotamia  and  Arabia:* 
Some  People  knew  them  by  the  name 

i  The  woman  to  the  man,  from  whose  side  she 
was  taken.  Probably  only  a  few  words  have  been 
omitted  at  the  last  hiatus. 

a  The  supposed  situation  of  the  Earthly  Paradise. 


54     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

of  *  *  *  */  and  others  under  that  of 
Prometheus,  whom  the  Poets  feigned  to 
have  stolen  Fire  from  Heaven,  by  rea- 
son of  his  Off-spring,  who  were  en- 
dowed with  a  Soul  as  perfect  as  his 
own :  So  that  to  inhabit  your  World, 
that  Man  left  this  destitute;  but  the 
All-wise  would  not  have  so  blessed  an 
Habitation,  to  remain  without  Inhabi- 
tants ;  He  suffered  a  few  ages  after  that 
###*#######* 

*  * 2  cloyed  with  the  company  of  Men, 
whose  Innocence  was  corrupted,  had  a 
desire  to  forsake  them.  This  person,3 
however,  thought  no  retreat  secure 
enough  from  the  Ambition  of  Men,  who 
already  Murdered  one  another  about  the 
distribution  of  your  World ;  except  that 
blessed  Land,  which  his  Grand-Father4 

1  Adam  and  Eve. 

2  We  may  imagine  this  a  short  hiatus,  to  be  filled 
in  as  follows:    u  He  suffered  a  few  ages  after  that, 
that  a  holy  man,  whose  name  was  Enoch,  cloyed  with 
the  company  of  men.  .  .  .  "etc. 

3  Enoch.     On  his  translation,  which  Cyrano  here 
makes  Elijah  account  for,  see  Genesis,  chapter  v. 

4  Adam.      Cyrano  may  possibly  have  confused 


A  Youth  He  Met  There   55 

had  so  often  mentioned  unto  him,  and 
to  which  no  Body  had  as  yet  found 
out  the  way:  But  his  Imagination 
supplied  that;  for  seeing  he  had  ob- 
served that  *  *  *  he  filled  Two  large 
Vessels  which  he  sealed  Hermetically, 
and  fastened  them  under  his  Arm-pits : 
So  soon  as  the  Smoak  began  to  rise  up- 
wards, and  could  not  pierce  through  the 
Mettal,  it  forced  up  the  Vessels  on  high, 
and  with  them  also  that  Great  Man.1 
When  he  was  got  as  high  as  the  Moon, 
and  had  cast  his  Eyes  upon  that  lovely 
Garden,  a  fit  of  almost  supernatural  Joy 
convinced  him,  that  that  was  the  place 
where  his  Grand-father  had  heretofore 
lived.  He  quickly  untied  the  Vessels, 
which  he  had  girt  like  Wings  about  his 
Shoulders,  and  did  it  so  luckily,  that  he 
was  scarcely  Four  Fathom  in  the  Air 

the  Enoch  who  was  translated  with  another  Enoch 
who  was  the  son  of  Cain  and  so  grandson  of  Adam. 
But  it  is  more  probable  that  he  used  the  word 
aieul  in  its  common  sense  of  ancestor;  as  indeed 
"grandfather"  was  used  in  old  English. 

1  Cf.  the  play:  *'  Since  smoke  by  its  nature  as- 
cends, I  could  have  blown  into  an  appropriate 
globe  a  sufficient  quantity  to  ascend  with  me." 


56     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

above  the  Moon,  when  he  set  his  Fins 
a  going ; l  yet  he  was  high  enough  still 
to  have  been  hurt  by  the  fall,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  large  skirts  of  his 
Gown,  which  being  swelled  by  the 
Wind,  gently  upheld  him  till  he  set 
Foot  on  ground.2  As  for  the  two  Ves- 
sels, they  mounted  up  to  a  certain  place, 
where  they  have  continued :  And  those 
are  they,  which  now  a-days  you  call  the 
Balance. 

"  I  must  now  tell  you,  the  manner 
how  I  came  hither :  I  believe  you  have 
not  forgot  my  name,3  seeing  it  is  not 
long  since  I  told  it  you.  You  shall 
know  then,  that  I  lived  on  the  agreeable 
Banks  of  one  of  the  most  renowned 
Rivers  of  your  World,  where  amongst 
my  Books,  I  lead  a  Life  pleasant 
enough  not  to  be  lamented,  though  it 
slipt  away  fast  enough.  In  the  mean 
while,  the  more  I  encreased  in  Knowl- 

1  u  Qu'il  prit  conge  de  ses  nageoires,"  =  "when 
he  abandoned  lti&  floats  (or  bladders)" 

2  Cyrano  may  here  be  credited  with  anticipating 
the  idea  of  the  parachute. 

3  Elijah,     The  passage  referred  to  is  lost. 


How  He  Came  Thither     57 

edge,  the  more  I  knew  my  Ignorance. 
Our  Learned  Men  never  put  me  in 
mind  of  the  famous  Mada*  but  the 
thoughts  of  his  perfect  Philosophy 
made  me  to  Sigh.  I  was  despairing  of 
being  able  to  attain  to  it,  when  one  day, 
after  a  long  and  profound  Studying.  I 
took  a  piece  of  Load-stone  about  two ' 
Foot  square,  which  I  put  into  a  Fur- 
nace ;  and  then  after  it  was  well  purged, 
precipitated  and  dissolved,  I  drew  the 
calcined  Attractive  of  it,  and  reduced  it 
into  the  size  of  about  an  ordinary  Bowl. a 
"  After  the  Preparations,  I  got  a  very 
light  Machine  of  Iron  made,  into  which 
I  went,  and  when  I  was  well  seated 
in  my  place,  I  threw  this  Magnetick 
Bowl  as  high  as  I  could  up  into  the 
Air.  Now  the  Iron  Machine,  which  I 
had  purposely  made  more  massive  in 
the  middle  than  at  the  ends,  was  pres- 
ently elevated,  and  in  a  just  Poise ;  be- 
cause the  middle  received  the  greatest 
force  of  Attraction.  So  then,  as  I  ar- 

1  Spell  the  name  backward. 

2  Ball     Cf.  Bowling.     Cf.  also  p.  177. 


58     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

rived  at  the  place  whither  my  Load- 
stone had  attracted  me,  I  presently 
threw  up  my  Bowl  in  the  Air  over  me. "  ! 
44  But,"  said  I,  interrupting  him,  "  How 
came  you  to  heave  up  your  Bowl  so 
streight  over  your  Chariot,  that  it 
never  happened  to  be  on  one  side  of  it? " 
"  That  seems  to  me  to  be  no  wonder  at 
all,"  said  he ;  "  for  the  Load-stone  being 
once  thrown  up  in  the  Air,  drew  the 
Iron  streight  towards  it ;  and  so  it  was 
impossible,  that  ever  I  should  mount 
side-ways.  Nay  more,  I  can  tell  you, 
that  when  I  held  the  Bowl  in  my  hand, 
I  was  still  mounting  upwards ;  because 
the  Chariot  flew  always  to  the  Load- 
stone, which  I  Jield  over  it.  But  the 
effort  of  the  Iron  to  be  united  to  my 
Bowl,  was  so  violent  that  it  made  my 
Body  bend  double ;  so  that  I  durst  but 

1  Cf.  the  u  sixth  means  "  in  the  play:  "  Or  else,  I 
could  have  placed  myseif  upon  an  iron  plate,  have 
taken  a  magnet  of  suitable  size,  and  thrown  it  in 
the  air !  That  way  is  a  very  good  one !  The  mag- 
net flies  upward,  the  iron  instantly  after;  the 
magnet  no  sooner  overtaken  than  you  fling  it  up 
again.  .  .  .  The  rest  is  clear!  You  can  go  upward 
indefinitely." 


How  He  Came  Thither      59 

once  essay  that  new  Experiment.  The 
truth  is,  it  was  a  very  surprizing  Spec- 
tacle to  behold;  for  the  Steel  of  that 
flying  House,  which  I  had  very  carefully 
Polished,  reflected  on  all  sides  the  light 
of  the  Sun  with  so  great  life  and  lustre, 
that  I  thought  my  self  to  be  all  on  fire.1 
In  fine,  after  often  Bowling  and  follow- 
ing of  my  Cast,  I  came,  as  you  did,  to 
an  Elevation  from  which  I  descended 
towards  this  World;  and  because  at 
that  instant  I  held  my  Bowl  very 
fast  between  my  hands,  my  Machine, 
whereof  the  Seat  pressed  me  hard,  that 
it  might  approach  its  Attractive,  did 
not  forsake  me ;  all  that  now  I  feared 
was,  that  I  should  break  my  Neck :  But 
to  save  me  from  that,  ever  now  and 
then  I  tossed  up  my  Bowl ;  that  by  its 
attractive  Virtue  it  might  prevent  the 
violent  Descent  of  my  Machine,  and 
render  my  fall  more  easie,  as  indeed  it 
happened;  for  when  I  saw  my  self 
within  Two  or  three  hundred  fathom  of 

1  The  "  chariot  of  fire  "  in  which  Elijah  was  taken 
up  into  heaven.     Cf.  2  Kings,  ii.  n. 


60     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

the  Earth,  I  threw  out  my  Bowl  on  all 
hands,  level  with  the  Chariot,  some- 
times on  this  side,  and  sometimes  on 
that,  until  I  came  to  a  certain  Distance ; 
and  immediately  then,  I  tossed  it  up 
above  me ;  so  that  my  Machine  follow- 
ing it,  I  left  it,  and  let  my  self  fall  on  the 
other  side,  as  gently  as  I  could,  upon 
the  Sand ;  insomuch  that  my  fall  was  no 
greater  than  if  it  had  been  but  my  own 
height.  I  shall  not  describe  to  you 
the  amazement  I  was  in  at  the  sight  of 
the  wonders  of  this  place,  seeing  it  was 
so  like  the  same,  wherewith  I  just  now 
saw  you  seized,  [*  You  shall  know  then, 
that  on  the  morrow  I  met  with  the 
Tree  of  Life,  by  the  means  of  which  I 
have  kept  my  self  from  growing  old ;  it 
straightway  consumed  the  Serpent 2  and 
made  him  to  vanish  away  in  smoke." 

1  The  following  pages  are  translated  from  the 
text  as  printed  for  the  first  time,  from  the  Manu- 
script at  the  Bibliothtque  Nationale,  in  an  appendix 
to  M.  Brun's  thesis  on  Cyrano  Bergerac,  1893. 

2  "The  serpent,"  as  soon  appears,  is  original  sin, 
which 

"Brought  death  into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe." 


The  Tree  of  Knowledge     6 1 

At  these  words :  "  Venerable  and  holy 
patriarch,"  said  I  to  him,  "I  am  eager 
to  know  what  you  understand  by  that 
Serpent  which  was  consumed."  He, 
with  face  a  smiling,  answered  me 
thus:  .  .  .' 

"  The  Tree  of  Knowledge  is  planted 
opposite;  its  fruit  is  covered  with  a 
Rind  which  produces  Ignorance  in 
whomsoever  hath  tasted  thereof;  yet 
this  Rind  preserves  underneath  its 
thickness  all  the  spiritual  virtues  of 
this  learned  food.  God,  when  he  had 
driven  Adam  from  this  fortunate  coun- 
try, rubbed  his  gums  with  this  same 
Rind,  that  he  might  never  find  the 
way  back  again;  for  more  than  fifteen 
years  thereafter  he  did  dote,  and  did 
so  completely  forget  all  things,  that 
neither  he  nor  any  of  his  descendants 
till  Moses  ever  remembered  even  so 
much  as  the  Creation;  but  what  Power 
was  left  of  this  direful  Rind  at  last 
passed  away  through  the  warmth  and 

1  Our  author's  treatment  of  "original  sin"  is, 
according  to  M.  Brun,  unprintable. 


62     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

brightness  of  that  great  Prophet's  ge- 


nius. 

u 


I  happily  met  with  one  among  these 
apples,  which  through  ripeness  was 
despoiled  of  its  skin;  hardly  had  my 
mouth  watered  with  it,  when  Universal 
Knowledge  penetrated  my  being,  I  felt 
as  it  were  an  infinite  number  of  Eyes 
fix  themselves  in  my  head,  and  I  knew 
the  means  of  speaking  with  the  Lord. 

"When  I  have  since  reflected  on 
these  miraculous  events,  I  have  judged 
that  I  could  in  no  wise  have  overcome, 
by  any  occult  powers  of  a  simple  natu- 
ral body,  the  vigilance  of  that  Seraph 
whom  God  has  ordained  to  guard  this 
Paradise ;  but  since  he  is  pleased  to  use 
second  causes,  I  imagined  that  he  had  in- 
spired me  to  find  this  means  of  entering 
there ;  even  as  he  thought  good  to  take 
of  the  ribs  of  Adam  to  make  him  a 
wife,  though  he  could  form  her  of 
Earth,  as  well  as  he  did  Adam. 

"I  remained  long  in  this  Garden, 
walking  about  alone ;  but  in  fine,  since 
the  angel  that  was  Keeper  of  the  Gate 


The  Guardian  Archangel    63 

seemed  to  me  to  be  in  chief  my  Host 
here,  I  was  taken  with  the  desire  to 
salute  him.  Jn  an  hour's  journey  I 
came  to  a  place  where  a  thousand 
Lightnings  mingled  together  in  one 
blinding  light  that  served  but  to  make 
Darkness  visible.  I  was  not  yet  fully 
recovered  from  this  dazzlement,  when  I 
saw  before  me  a  beautiful  Young  man. 
4 1  am,'  said  he,  '  the  Archangel  whom 
you  seek,  I  have  but  now  read  in  God 
that  he  had  inspired  you  with  the 
means  of  coming  here,  and  that  he 
willed  you  should  here  expect  his  pleas- 
ure. '  He  talked  with  me  of  many 
things,  and  told  me  among  the  rest : 

"  That  the  light  wherewith  I  had  been 
amazed  was  nothing  fearful,  but  that  it 
appeared  almost  every  evening  when 
he  went  his  rounds,  seeing  that  to  avoid 
sudden  attack  from  the  Evil  Spirits, 
which  may  enter  secretly  at  any  place, 
he  was  constrained  mightily  to  swing 
his  Flaming  Sword  in  circles,  all  about 
the  bounds  of  the  Earthly  Paradise; 
and  that  the  light  I  had  seen  was  the 


64     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

lightnings  which  the  steel  of  it  gave 
forth.  '  Those  also  which  you  perceive 
from  your  Earth, '  he  added,  '  are  of 
my  creation.  And  if  sometimes  you 
see  them  at  a  great  distance,  it  is  be- 
cause the  clouds  of  some  distant  region 
hold  themselves  in  such  disposition  as 
to  receive  an  impression  of  these  un- 
bodied fires,  and  reflect  them  to  your 
eyes ;  just  as  clouds  otherwise  disposed 
may  prove  themselves  fit  to  make  the 
Rain-bow. ' 

"I  will  not  instruct  you  further  in 
these  matters,  since  to  be  sure  the  Ap- 
ple of  Knowledge  is  not  far  from  hence  ; 
whereof  as  soon  as  you  have  eaten,  you 
will  know  all  things  even  as  I.  But 
see  you  make  no  mistake,  for  most  of 
the  Fruits  that  hang  from  that  Plant 
are  encased  in  a  Rind,  whose  taste  will 
abase  you  even  below  man;  while  the 
part  within  will  make  you  mount  up  to 
be  even  as  the  Angels. " 

Elijah  had  come  to  this  point  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Seraph,  when  a  little 
short  man  came  up  with  us ;  *  This  is 


The  Hermitage  of  Enoch  65 

that  Enoch  of  whom  I  told  you,"  said 
my  guide  to  me  apart ;  and  even  while 
he  finished  the  words,  Enoch  offered  us 
a  basketful  of  I  know  not  what  fruits, 
like  to  Pomegranates,  which  he  had 
but  discovered  that  same  day  in  a  dis- 
tant coppice.  I  took  some  and  put  in 
my  pockets,  as  Elijah  bade  me.  Here- 
upon Enoch  asked  him  who  I  might  be. 
"  That  is  a  matter,"  answered  my  guide, 
u  to  entertain  us  at  more  leisure ;  this 
evening  when  we  have  withdrawn  he 
shall  tell  us  himself  of  the  miraculous 
particulars  of  his  journey." 

With  these  words  we  arrived  beneath 
a  sort  of  Hermitage,  made  of  palm- 
branches  skilfully  inter -laced  with 
myrtle  and  orange-branches.  There 
I  saw,  in  a  little  nook,  great  piles  of  a 
kind  of  floss-silk,  so  white  and  so  deli- 
cate that  one  might  take  it  for  the  vir- 
gin Soul  of  the  snow ;  and  I  saw  dis- 
taffs lying  here  and  there ;  whereupon 
I  asked  my  guide  what  use  they  served. 
"To  spin,"  he  answered  me;  "when 
the  good  Enoch  would  relax  his  mind 
5 


66     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

from  meditation,  he  applies  himself 
sometimes  to  dressing-  this  Lady-distaff, 
sometimes  to  weaving  the  cloth  from 
which  they  make  Shifts  for  the  eleven 
thousand  Virgins.  Surely  in  your 
world  you  have  met  with  that  some- 
thing white,  which  flutters  on  the 
winds  in  Autumn  about  the  season  of 
the  Winter-sowings.  Your  peasant- 
folk  call  it  Our  Lady's  Cotton,  but 
it  is  no  other  than  the  Flock  that 
Enoch  purges  his  Linen  of,  when  he 
cards  it. " 

We  made  little  delay  there,  and  but 
barely  took  leave  of  Enoch,  whom  this 
cabin  served  for  his  Cell ;  in  truth  what 
made  us  leave  him  so  soon  was  this: 
that  he  said  some  prayer  there  every 
six  hours ;  and  it  was  at  least  that  time 
since  he  had  finished  the  last  one. 

As  we  went  forward,  I  begged  Elijah 
to  finish  that  history  which  he  had  be- 
gun, of  the  Assumptions  or  Transla- 
tions ;  and  I  said,  that  he  had  come, 
I  thought,  to  that  of  Saint  John  the 
Evangelist. 


The  Author's  Impety      67 

Then  said  he  to  me:  "Since  you 
have  not  the  patience,  to  wait  till  the 
Apple  of  Knowledge  teach  you  all  these 
things  better  than  I  can,  I  will  even  tell 
you.  Know  then  that  God " 

At  this  word,  in  some  way  I  know 
not  how,  the  Devil  would  have  his  Fin- 
ger in  that  pie ;  or  howsoever  it  came 
about,  so  it  was  that  I  could  not  for- 
bear Interrupting  him  with  raillery. 

"I  remember  that  case,"  said  I: 
"  God  heard  one  day  that  the  Soul  of 
the  Evangelist  was  so  loosed  from  his 
Body,  that  he  no  more  kept  it  in  but  by 
shutting  his  teeth  hard;  and  at  that 
moment  the  hour  when  he  had  fore- 
seen that  he  should  be  translated  hither 
was  almost  past;  so  having  no  time  to 
get  him  a  machine  made  ready  for 
coming,  He  was  constrained  to  make 
him  suddenly  be  here,  without  having 
time  to  bring  him. " 

During  all  my  discourse  Elijah  bent 
upon  me  such  a  look,  as  would  have 
been  fit  to  kill  me,  had  I  then  been 
capable  of  dying  from  aught  but  Hun- 


68     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

ger.  "Thou  Wretch,"  said  he,  and 
drew  back  in  horror,  "  thou  hast  the  in- 
solence to  rail  at  Holy  Things !  Surely 
thou  shouldst  not  go  unpunished,  were 
it  not  that  the  All-wise  determines  to 
spare  thee  as  a  marvellous  example  of 
His  long-suffering,  a  witness  to  the  Na- 
tions. Get  hence,  thou  Blasphemer,  go 
thou  and  publish  in  this  little  World, 
and  in  the  other  (for  thou  art  predes- 
tined to  return  thither),  the  unforget- 
ting  Hatred  that  God  bears  to  Athe- 
ists." 

Hardly  had  he  finished  this  Curse, 
when  he  seized  me  roughly  to  drag 
me  toward  the  Gate.  When  we  were 
arrived  beside  a  great  Tree  whose 
branches  bent  almost  to  Earth  with  the 
burden  of  their  Fruit,  "  Here,"  said  he, 
"  is  that  Tree  of  Knowledge  where  thou 
shouldst  have  got  Enlightenment  in- 
conceivable, but  for  thy  Infidelity. " 

At  that  word  I  feigned  to  swoon  with 
weakness,  and  letting  my  self  fall 
against  a  low  branch  I  handily  filched 
an  Apple  from  it.  And  in  but  a  few 


Cast  Out  from  the  Garden  69 

strides  more  I  was  set  down  outside  of 
that  delicious  Garden. 

In  that  moment,  being  so  violently 
pressed  by  Hunger,  that  I  even  forgot 
I  was  in  the  grip  of  the  angry  Prophet, 
I  drew  from  my  pocket  one  of  those 
Apples  I  had  filled  it  with,  wherein  I 
buried  my  teeth  as  deep  as  I  could. 
But  so  it  was,  that  in  place  of  taking 
one  of  those  Enoch  had  given  me,  my 
hand  fell  on  that  very  Apple  I  had 
plucked  from  the  Tree  of  Knowledge, 
which  for  my  misfortune  I  had  not 
freed  of  its  Rind.] 

1  Scarcely  had  I  tasted  it,  when  a  thick 
Cloud  over-cast  my  Soul :  I  saw  no  body 
now  near  me;  and  in  the  whole  Hemi- 
sphere my  Eyes  could  not  discern  the 
least  Tract  of  the  way  I  had  made;  yet 
nevertheless  I  fully  remembered  every 
thing  that  befel  me.  When  I  reflected 
since  upon  that  Miracle,  I  fanced  that 
the  skin  of  the  Fruit  which  I  bit  had 
not  rendered  me  altogether  brutish; 

1  Here  the  original  text  resumes,  as  found  in  all 
the  editions,  both  French  and  English. 


70     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

because  my  Teeth  piercing  through  it 
were  a  little  moistened  by  the  Juyce 
within,  the  efficacy  whereof  had  dissi- 
pated the  Malignities  of  the  Rind.  I 
was  not  a  little  surprised  to  see  my  self 
all  alone,  in  a  Country  I  knew  not.  It 
was  to  no  purpose  for  me  to  stare  and 
look  about  me;  for  no  Creature  ap- 
peared to  comfort  me. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Being  cast  out  from  that  Country,  of  the 
new  Adventures  which  Befell  him  ; 
and  of  the  Demon  of  Socrates. 

At  length  I  resolved  to  march  for- 
wards, till  Fortune  should  aford  me  the 
company  of  some  Beasts,  or  at  least 
the  means  of  Dying.  She  favourably 
granted  my  desire;  for  within  half  a 
quarter  of  a  League,  I  met  two  huge 
Animals,  one  of  which  stopt  before  me, 
and  the  other  fled  swiftly  to  its  Den; 
for  so  I  thought  at  least;  because  that 
some  time  after,  I  perceived  it  come 
back  again  in  company  of  above  Seven 
or  Eight  hundred  of  the  same  kind,  who 
beset  me.  When  I  could  discern  them 
at  a  near  distance,  I  perceived  that  they 
were  proportioned  and  shaped  like  us. 
This  adventure  brought  into  my  mind 
the  old  Wives  Tales  of  my  Nurse  con- 


72     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

cerning  Syrenes,  Faunes  and  Satyrs  : 
Ever  now  and  then  they  raised  such 
furious  Shouts,  occasioned  undoubtedly 
by  their  Admiration1  at  the  sight  of 
me,  that  I  thought  I  was  e'en  turned 
a  Monster.  At  length  one  of  these 
Beast-like  men,  catching  hold  of  me  by 
the  Neck,  just  as  Wolves  do  when  they 
carry  away  Sheep,  tossed  me  upon  his 
back  and  brought  me  into  their  Town ; 
where  I  was  more  amazed  than  before, 
when  I  knew  they  were  Men,  that  I 
could  meet  with  none  of  them  but  who 
marched  upon  all  four. 

When  these  People  saw  that  I  was  so 
little,  (for  most  of  them  are  Twelve 
Cubits  long,)  and  that  I  walked  only 
upon  Two  Legs,  they  could  not  believe 
me  to  be  a  Man:  For  they  were  of 
opinion,  that  Nature  having  given  to 
men  as  well  as  Beasts  Two  Legs  and 
Two  Arms,  they  should  both  make  use 
of  them  alike.  And,  indeed,  reflecting 
upon  that  since,  that  scituation  of  Body 
did  not  seem  to  me  altogether  extrava- 

i  Astonishment. 


New  Adventures  73 

gant ;  when  I  called  to  mind,  that  whilst 
Children  are  still  under  the  nurture  of 
Nature,  they  go  upon  all  four,  and  that 
they  rise  not  on  their  two  Legs  but  by 
the  care  of  their  Nurses ;  who  set  them 
in  little  running  Chairs,  and  fasten 
straps  to  them,  to  hinder  them  from 
falling  on  all  four,  as  the  only  posture 
that  the  shape  of  our  Body  naturally 
inclines  to  rest  in. 

They  said  then,  (as  I  had  it  interpre- 
ted to  me  since)  That  I  was  infallibly 
the  Female  of  the  Queens  little  Ani- 
mal. And  therefore  as  such,  or  some- 
what else,  I  was  carried  streight  to  the 
Town-House,  where  I  observed  by  the 
muttering  and  gestures  both  of  the 
People  and  Magistrates,  that  they  were 
consulting  what  sort  of  a  thing  I  could 
be.  When  they  had  conferred  together 
a  long  while,  a  certain  Burgher,  who 
had  the  keeping  of  the  strange  Beasts, 
besought  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  to 
commit  me  to  his  Custody,  till  the 
Queen  should  send  for  me  to  couple 
me  to  my  Male.  This  was  granted 


74     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

without  any  difficulty,  and  that  Juggler 
carried  me  to  his  House;  where  he 
taught  me  to  Tumble,  Vault,  make 
Mouths,  and  shew  a  Hundred  odd 
Tricks,  for  which  in  the  Afternoons  he 
received  Money  at  the  door  from  those 
that  came  in  to  see  me. 

But  Heaven  pitying  my  Sorrows, 
and  vext  to  see  the  Temple  of  its 
Maker  profaned,  so  ordered  it,  tha~ 
one  day  [when]  I  was  tied  to  a  Rope, 
wherewith  the  Mountebank  made  me 
Leap  and  Skip  to  divert  the  People, 
I  heard  a  Man's  voice,  who  asked  me 
what  I  was,  in  Greek.  I  was  much  sur- 
prised to  hear  one  speak  in  that  Coun- 
try as  they  do  in  our  World.  He  put 
some  Questions  to  me,  which  I  an- 
swered, and  then  gave  him  a  full  ac- 
count of  my  whole  design,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  my  Travels :  He  took  the  pains 
to  comfort  me,  and,  as  I  take  it,  said  to 
me :  "  Well,  Son,  at  length  you  suffer 
for  the  frailties  of  your  World :  There  is 
a  Mobile  '  here,  as  well  as  there,  that  can 

1  Mobile  =  people,  populace.     Cf.  p.  145. 


The  Demon  of  Socrates     75 

sway  with  nothing  but  what  they  are 
accustomed  to :  But  know,  that  you  are 
but  justly  served ;  for  had  any  one  of 
this  Earth  had  the  boldness  to  mount 
up  to  yours,  and  call  himself  a  Man, 
your  Sages  would  have  destroyed  him 
as  a  Monster. " 

He  then  told  me,  That  he  would 
acquaint  the  Court  with  my  disaster; 
adding,  that  so  soon  as  he  had  heard 
the  news  that  went  of  me,  he  came 
to  see  me,  and  was  satisfied  that  I 
was  a  man  of  the  World  of  which  I 
said  I  was;  because  he  had  Travelled 
there  formerly,  and  sojourned  in  Greece, 
where  he  was  called  the  Demon  of  Soc- 
rates :  That  after  the  Death  of  that 
Philosopher,  he  had  governed  and 
taught  Epaminondas  at  Thebes :  After 
which  being  gone  over  to  the  Romans, 
Justice  had  obliged  him  to  espouse  the 
party  of  the  Younger  Cato :  That  after 
his  Death,  he  had  addicted  himself  to 
Brutus :  That  all  these  great  Men  hav- 
ing left  in  that  World  no  more  but  the 
shadow  of  their  Virtues,  he  with  his 


j6     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Companions  had  retreated  to  Temples 
and  Solitudes.  "  In  a  word,"  added  he, 
"  the  People  of  your  World  became  so 
dull  and  stupid,  that  my  Companions 
and  I  lost  all  the  Pleasure  that  former- 
ly we  had  had  in  instructing  them :  Not 
but  that  you  have  heard  Men  talk  of 
us ;  for  they  called  us  Oracles,  Nymphs, 
Geniuses,  Fairies,  Houshold-Gods,  Lem- 
mes,v  Larves*  Lamiers*  Hobgoblins, 
Nayades,  Incubtisses,  Shades,  Manes, 
Visions  and  Apparitions :  We  aban- 
doned your  World,  in  the  Reign  of  Au- 
gustus, not  long  after  I  had  appeared  to 
Drusus  the  Son  of  Livia,  who  waged 
War  in  Germany,  whom  I  forbid  to  pro- 
ceed any  farther.  It  is  not  long  since  I 
came  from  thence  a  second  time ;  within 
these  Hundred  Years  I  had  a  Commis- 
sion to  Travel  thither :  I  roamed  a  great 
deal  in  Europe,  and  conversed  with 

^emures;    malicious  spirits  of  the    dead.     Cf. 
Milton : 

"The  Lars   and    Lemures   moan    with    midnight 
plaint." 

2  Lars,  larvas ;  ghosts,  spectres. 

3  Lamias;  female  demons  or  vampires. 


The  Demon  of  Socrates     77 

some,  whom  possibly  you  may  have 
known.  One  Day,  amongst  others,  I 
appeared  to  Cardan,1  as  he  was  at  his 
Study;  I  taught  him  a  great  many 
things,  and  he  in  acknowledgment 
promised  me  to  inform  Posterity  of 
whom  he  had  those  Wonders,  which  he 
intended  to  leave  in  writing.3  There 
I  saw Agrippa*  the  Abbot  Trithemius* 
Doctor  Faustus,  La  Brosse,  Ccesar, 5  and 
a  certain  Cabal  of  Young.  Men,  who 
are  commonly  called  Rosacrucians  *  or 

1  £/•  P- 12> n- *• 

2  "Jerome  Cardan  pretended    to   have   written 
most  of  his  books  under  the  dictation  of  a  Famil- 
iar Spirit  .  .  .  but,  in  his  treatise  De  Rerum  Varie- 
tate,  he  ingenuously  declares  that  he  had  never  had 
any  other  genius  but  his  own  :    Ego  certe  nullum 
dcemonem  atit  genium  mihi  adesse  cognosce"     (Note 
of  Paul  Lacroix.) 

3  Cornelius    Agrippa   of   Nettesheim,   1486-1535, 
philosopher,  astrologer,  and   alchemist.      Cyrano 
introduces   him    in   his    Lettre   XIL,    uPour   les 
Sorciers." 

4  Jean  Tritheme  (or  Johann  Tritheim),  Abbot  of 
Spanheim ;  a  man  of  universal  scholarship,  and  an 
experimenter  in  alchemy;  also  accused  of  sorcery. 

5  Cesar  de  Nostradamus,  physician  and  astrologer 
of  the  early  sixteenth  century. 

« A  famous  occult  order  which  probably  never 


78     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Knights  of  the  Red- Cross,  whom  I  taught 
a  great  many  Knacks  and  Secrets  of 
Nature,  which  without  doubt  have  made 
them  pass  for  great  Magicians :  I  knew 
Campanella  *  also ;  it  was  I  that  advised 
him,  whilst  he  was  in  the  Inquisition  at 
Rome,  to  put  his  Face  and  Body  into 
the  usual  Postures  of  those  whose  in- 
side he  needed  to  know,  that  by  the 
same  frame  of  Body  he  might  excite  in 
himself  the  thoughts  which  the  same 
scituation  had  raised  in  his  Adversa- 
ries; because  by  so  doing,  he  might 
better  manage  their  Soul,  when  he  came 

existed,  but  about  which  much  was  written  in  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  founded  early  in  the  fifteenth 
century  by  Rosenkrenz,  a  pilgrim  who  had  ac- 
quired all  the  wisdom  of  the  Orient. 

1  Tomaso  Campanella,  1568-1639,  Italian  poet  and 
philosopher,  who  came  to  Paris  in  1634.  His  phi- 
losophy was  much  admired  by  Cyrano,  since  he  re- 
jected the  Aristotelism  of  the  schools,  advocated 
empiricism  as  the  only  method  of  arriving  at  truth, 
and  insisted  on  the  ' l  four  Elements  "  as  the  origin 
of  all  things. 

He  appears  as  an  important  character  in  Cyrano's 
Voyage  to  the  Sun,  where  he  is  Cyrano's  companion 
and  guide  to  the  Land  of  the  Philosophers. 


The  Demon  of  Socrates     79 

to  know  it  ;  and  at  my  desire  he  began 
a  Book,  which  we  Entituled,  De  Sensu 


"I  likewise  haunted,  in  France,  La 
Mot  he  le  Vayer  a  and  Gassendus  ;  3  this 
last  hath  written  as  much  like  a  Phi- 
losopher, as  the  other  lived:  I  have 
known  a  great  many  more  there,  whom 
your  Age  call  Divines*  but  all  that  I 
could  find  in  them  was  a  great  deal  of 
Babble  and  a  great  deal  of  Pride.  In 
fine,  since  I  past  over  from  your  Coun- 
try into  England,  to  acquaint  my  self 
with  the  manners  of  its  Inhabitants,  I 

1  Campanella's  principal  work,  published  in  1620. 

2  Frangois  de  La  Mothe  le  Vayer,  1588-1672.     He 
was  the  tutor  of  the  Due  d'Orleans,  brother  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and,  after  1654,  of  Louis  XIV.  himself. 
In  philosophy  he  was  a  free-thinker,  in  literature  a 
disciple  of  Montaigne.    He  nevertheless  concealed 
his  scepticism  in   philosophy,   even  in    his    chief 
work,   the  Doutes   sceptiques^  under    a    pretended 
orthodoxy  in  religion,  and  so  was  never  persecuted. 
Possibly  it  is  to  this  that  Cyrano  refers  in  saying, 
that  he  **  lived  as  much  like  a  philosopher,  as  Gas- 
sendi  wrote." 

3  Cf.  p  28,  n.  i. 

*  Divine.    The   translator  has  mistaken  an  ad- 
jective for  a  noun. 


8o     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

met  with  a  Man,  the  shame  of  his  Coun- 
try; for  certainly  it  is  a  great  shame 
for  the  Grandees  of  your  States  to 
know  the  virtue  which  in  him  has  its 
Throne,  and  not  to  adore  him :  That  I 
may  give  you  an  Abridgement  of  his 
Panegyrick,  he  is  all  Wit,  all  Heart,  and 
possesses  all  the  Qualities,  of  which 
one  alone  was  heretofore  sufficient  to 
make  an  Heroe:  It  was  Tristan  the 
Hermite.1  The  Truth  is,  I  must  tell 
you,  when  I  perceived  so  exalted  a  Vir- 
tue I  mistrusted  it  would  not  be  taken 
notice  of,  and  therefore  I  endeavoured 
to  make  him  accept  Three  Vials,  the 
first  filled  with  the  Oyl  of  Talk,2  the 
other  with  the  Powder  of  Projection,3 

i  Frangois  Tristan  THermite,  1601-1655,  a  French 
dramatist  of  importance.  His  tragedy  of  Ma- 
riamne,  in  date  contemporary  with  Corneille's  Cid, 
marks  him  as  a  predecessor  of  Racine  in  method 
and  manner.  He  is  also  the  author  of  fugitive 
verse,  but  neither  that  nor  his  plays  make  him 
quite  worthy  of  Cyrano's  exalted  "Elogy." 

He  was  compelled  to  pass  the  years  1614-1620  in 
England,  on  account  of  a  duel  fought  at  the  age  of 
thirteen !  2  Talc,  silicate  of  magnesia. 

3  The  "  Philosopher's  Stone,"  in  form  of  powder, 


The  Demon  of  Socrates     81 

and  the  third  with  Aurum  Potabile;1 
but  he  refused  them  with  a  more  gen- 
erous Disdain  than  Diogenes  did  the 
Complements  of  Alexander.  In  fine,  I 
can  add  nothing  to  the  Elogy a  of  that 
Great  Man,  but  that  he  is  the  only 
Poet,  the  only  Philosopher,  and  the 
only  Free-man  amongst  you:  These 
are  the  considerable  Persons  that  I  con- 
versed with ;  all  the  rest,  at  least  that 
I  know,  are  so  far  below  Man  that  I 
have  seen  Beasts  somewhat  above 
them. 

"  After  all,  I  am  not  a  Native  neither 
of  this  Country  nor  yours,  I  was  born 
in  the  Sun ;  but  because  sometimes  our 
World  is  overstock 'd  with  people,  by 
reason  of  the  long  Lives  of  the  Inhabi- 
tants, and  that  there  is  hardly  any 
Wars  or  Diseases  amongst  them :  Our 
Magistrates,  from  time  to  time,  send 

for  chemical  "projection"  upon  baser  metals,  to 
transmute  them  into  gold. 

iThe  "Elixir  of  Life,"  or  the  "Philosopher's 
Stone  "  in  liquid  form. 

2  Eulogy.    Still  so  used  at  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 
6 


8  2     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Colonies  into  the  neighbouring  Worlds. 
For  my  own  part,  I  was  commanded  to 
go  to  yours;  being  declared  Chief  of 
the  Colony  that  accompanyed  me.  I 
came  since  into  this  World,  for  the 
Reasons  I  told  you;  and  that  which 
makes  me  continue  here,  is,  because  the 
Men  are  great  lovers  of  Truth ;  and  have 
no  Pedants  among  them ;  that  the  Phi- 
losophers are  never  perswaded  but  by 
Reason,  and  that  the  Authority  of  a 
Doctor,  or  of  a  great  number,  is  not 
preferred  before  the  Opinion  of  a 
Thresher  in  a  Barn,  when  he  has  right 
on  his  side.  In  short,  none  are  reck- 
oned Mad-men  in  this  Country,  but 
Sophisters  and  Orators. "  I  asked  him 
how  they  lived?  he  made  answer,  three 
or  four  thousand  Years ;  and  thus  went 
on: 

"  Though  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Sun 
be  not  so  numerous  as  those  of  this 
World ;  yet  the  Sun  is  many  times  over 
stocked,  because  the  People  being  of  a 
hot  constitution  are  stirring  and  ambi- 
tious, and  digest  much." 


The  People  of  the  Sun      83 

"You  ought  not  to  be  surprised  at 
what  I  tell  you ;  for  though  our  Globe  be 
very  vast,  and  yours  little,  though  we 
die  not  before  the  end  of  Four  thou- 
sand Years,  and  you  at  the  end  of 
Fifty;  yet  know,  that  as  there  are  not 
so  many  Stones  as  clods  of  Earth,  nor 
so  many  Animals  as  Plants,  nor  so 
many  Men  as  Beasts;  just  so  there 
ought  not  to  be  so  many  Spirits  as 
Men,  by  reason  of  the  difficulties  that 
occur  in  the  Generation  of  a  perfect 
Creature." 

I  asked  him,  if  they  were  Bodies  as 
we  are?  He  made  answer,  That  they 
were  Bodies,  but  not  like  us,  nor  any 
thing  else  which  we  judged  such ;  be- 
cause we  call  nothing  a  Body  common- 
ly, but  what  we  can  touch:  That,  in 
short,  there  was  nothing  in  Nature  but 
what  was  material;  and  that  though 
they  themselves  were  so,  yet  they  were 
forced,  when  they  had  a  mind  to  appear 
to  us,  to  take  Bodies  proportionated  to 
what  our  Senses  are  able  to  know ;  and 
that,  without  doubt,  that  was  the  rea- 


84     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

son  why  many  have  taken  the  Stories 
that  are  told  of  them  for  the  Delusions 
of  a  weak  Fancy,  because  they  only 
appeared  in  the  night  time:  He  told 
me  withal,  That  seeing  they  were  ne- 
cessitated to  piece  together  the  Bodies 
they  were  to  make  use  of,  in  great 
haste,  many  times  they  had  not  leisure 
enough  to  render  them  the  Objects  of 
more  Senses  than  one  at  a  time,  some- 
times of  the  Hearing,  as  the  Voices  of 
Oracles,  sometimes  of  the  Sight,  as  the 
Fires  and  Visions,  sometimes  of  the 
Feeling,  as  the  Incubusses ;  and  that 
these  Bodies  being  but  Air  condensed 
in  such  or  such  a  manner,  the  Light 
dispersed  them  by  its  heat,  in  the  same 
manner  as  it  scatters  a  Mist. 

So  many  fine  things  as  he  told  me, 
gave  me  the  curiosity  to  question  him 
about  his  Birth  and  Death;  if  in  the 
Country  of  the  Sun,  the  individual  was 
procreated  by  the  ways  of  Generation, 
and  if  it  died  by  the  dissolution  of  its 
Constitution,  or  the  discomposure  of  its 
Organs?  "Your  senses,"  replied  he, 


The  People  of  the  Sun      85 

"  bear  but  too  little  proportion  to  the  Ex- 
plication of  these  Mysteries :  Ye  Gentle- 
men imagine,  that  whatsoever  you  can- 
not comprehend  is  spiritual,  or  that  it  is 
not  at  all ;  but  that  Consequence  1  is  ab- 
surd, and  it  is  an  argument,  that  there 
are  a  Million  of  things,  perhaps,  in  the 
Universe,  that  would  require  a  Million 
of  different  Organs  in  you  to  under- 
stand them.  For  instance,  I  by  my 
Senses  know  the  cause  of  the  Sympa- 
thy that  is  betwixt  the  Load-stone  and 
the  Pole,  of  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of 
the  Sea,  and  what  becomes  of  the  Ani- 
mal after  Death;  you  cannot  reach 
these  high  Conceptions  but  by  Faith, 
because  they  are  Secrets  above  the 
power  of  your  Intellects ;  no  more  than 
a  Blind-man  can  judge  of  the  beauties 
of  a  Land-skip,  the  Colours  of  a  Pic- 
ture, or  the  streaks  of  a  Rain-bow ;  or 

1  Consequence  =  conclusion,  deduction.     Cf.  Mat- 
thew Prior: 

"  Can  syllogisms  set  things  right? 
No,  majors  soon  with  minors  fight. 
Or  both  in  friendly  consort  joined 
The  consequence  limps  false  behind," 


86     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

-•at  best  he  will  fancy  them  to  be  some- 
what palpable,  to  be  like  Eating,  a 
Sound,  or  a  pleasant  Smell :  Even  so, 
should  I  attempt  to  explain  to  you 
what  I  perceive  by  the  Senses  which 
you  want,  you  would  represent  it  to 
your  self  as  somewhat  that  may  be 
Heard,  Seen,  Felt,  Smelt  or  Tasted, 
and  yet  it  is  no  such  thing. " 

He  was  gone  on  so  far  in  his  Dis- 
course, when  my  Juggler  perceived, 
that  the  Company  began  to  be  weary 
of  my  Gibberish,  that  they  understood 
not,  and  which  they  took  to  be  an  inar- 
ticulated  Grunting:  He  therefore  fell 
to  pulling  my  Rope  afresh  to  make  me 
leap  and  skip,  till  the  Spectators  hav- 
ing had  their  Belly-fulls  of  Laughing, 
affirmed  that  I  had  almost  as  much  Wit 
as  the  Beasts  of  their  Country,  and  so 
broke  up. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Of  the  Languages  of  the  People  in  the 
Moon;  of  the  Manner  of  Feeding 
there,  and  #/ Paying  the  Scot ;  and  of 
how  the  Author  was  taken  to  Court. 

Thus,  all  the  comfort  I  had  during 
the  misery  of  my  hard  Usage,  were  the 
visits  of  this  officious  *  Spirit ;  for  you 
may  judge  what  conversation  I  could 
have  with  these  that  came  to  see  me, 
since  besides  that  they  only  took  me 
for  an  Animal,  in  the  highest  class  of 
the  Category  of  Bruits,  I  neither  under- 
stood their  Language,  nor  they  mine. 
For  you  must  know,  that  there  are  but 
two  Idioms  in  use  in  that  Country,  one 
for  the  Grandees,  and  another  for  the 
People  in  general. 

1  Officious  =  kindly,  ready  to  serve,  doing  good 
offices.  Cf.  Milton,  Paradise  Lost  : 

44  Yet,  not  to  earth  are  those  bright  luminaries 
Officious;  but  to  thee,  earth's  habitant." 


88     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

That  of  the  great  ones  is  no  more 
•but  various  inarticulate  Tones,  much 
like  to  our  Musick  when  the  Words  are 
not  added  to  the  Air : '  and  in  reality  it 
is  an  Invention  both  very  useful  and 
pleasant;  for  when  they  are  weary  of 
talking,  or  disdain  to  prostitute  their 
Throats  to  that  Office,  they  take  either 
a  Lute  or  some  other  Instrument, 
whereby  they  communicate  their 
Thoughts  as  well  as  by  their  Tongue : 
So  that  sometimes  Fifteen  or  Twenty 
in  a  Company  will  handle  a  point  of 
Divinity,  or  discuss  the  difficulties  of  a 
Law-suit,  in  the  most  harmonious  Con- 
sort that  ever  tickled  the  Ear. 

The  second,  which  is  used  by  the 
Vulgar,  is  performed  by  a  shivering  of 
the  Members,  but  not,  perhaps,  as  you 

1  Cf.  The  Man  in  the  Moone,  of  Francis  Godwin : 
"  Their  Language  is  very  difficult,  since  it  hath  no 
Affinity  with  any  other  I  ever  heard,  and  consists 
not  so  much  of  Words  and  Letters,  as  Tunes  and 
strange  Sounds  which  no  Letters  can  express ;  for 
there  are  few  Words  but  signify  several  Things, 
and  are  distinguished  only  by  their  Sounds,  which 
are  sung  as  it  were  in  uttering ;  yea  many  Words 
consist  of  Tunes  only,  without  Words." 


Languages  of  the  Moon     89 

may  imagine ;  for  some  parts  of  the 
Body  signifie  an  entire  Discourse ;  for 
example,  the  agitation  of  a  Finger,  a 
Hand,  an  Ear,  a  Lip,  an  Arm,  an  Eye, 
a  Cheek,  every  one  severally  will  make 
up  an  Oration,  or  a  Period  with  all  the 
parts  of  it :  Others  serve  only  instead 
of  Words,  as  the  knitting  of  the  Brows, 
the  several  quiverings  of  the  Muscles, 
the  turning  of  the  Hands,  the  stamping 
of  the  Feet,  the  contorsion  of  the  Arm ; 
so  that  when  they  speak,  as  their  Cus- 
tom is,  stark  naked,  their  Members  be- 
ing used  to  gesticulate  their  Concep- 
tions, move  so  quick  that  one  would 
not  think  it  to  be  a  Man  that  spoke,  but 
a  Body  that  trembled. 

Every  day  almost  the  Spirit  came  to 
see  me,  and  his  rare  Conversation  made 
me  patiently  bear  with  the  rigour  of 
my  Captivity.  At  length  one  morning 
I  saw  a  Man  enter  my  Cabbin,  whom  I 
knew  not,  who  having  a  long  while 
licked  me  gently,  took  me  in  his  Teeth 
by  the  Shoulder,  and  with  one  of  his 
Paws,  wherewith  he  held  me  up  for 


90     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

fear  I  might  hurt  my  self,  threw  me 
upon  his  Back ;  where  I  found  my  self 
so  softly  seated,  and  so  much  at  my 
ease,  that,  [though]  being  afflicted  to 
be  used  like  a  Beast,  I  had  not  the  least 
desire  of  making  my  escape;  and  be- 
sides, these  Men  that  go  upon  all  four 
are  much  swifter  than  we,  seeing  the 
heaviest  of  them  make  nothing  of  run- 
ning down  a  Stagg. 

In  the  mean  time  I  was  extreamly 
troubled  that  I  had  no  news  of  my 
courteous  Spirit;  and  the  first  night 
we  came  to  our  Inn,  as  I  was  walking  in 
the  Court,  expecting  till  Supper  should 
be  ready,  a  pretty  handsome  young 
Man  came  smiling  in  my  Face  and 
cast  his  Two  Fore-Legs  about  my  Neck. 
After  I  had  a  little  considered  him: 
"How!"  said  he  in  French,  "do  you 
[not]  know  your  Friend  then? "  I  leave 
you  to  judge  in  what  case  I  was  at  that 
time ;  really,  my  surprise  was  so  great, 
that  I  began  to  imagine,  that  all  the 
Globe  of  the  Moon,  all  that  had  befallen 
me,  and  all  that  I  had  seen,  had  only 


Languages  and  Manners    91 

been  Enchantment:  And  that  Beast- 
man,  who  was  the  same  that  had  car- 
ried me  all  day,  continued  to  speak  to 
me  in  this  manner ;  "  You  promised  me, 
that  the  good  Offices  I  did  you  should 
never  be  forgotten,  and  yet  it  seems 
you  have  never  seen  me  before;"  but 
perceiving  me  still  in  amaze :  "  In  fine, " 
said  he,  "  I  am  that  same  Demon  of  Soc- 
rates, who  diverted  you  during  your 
Imprisonment,  and  who,  that  I  may 
still  oblige  you,  took  to  my  self  a  Body, 
on  which  I  carried  you  to  day :  "  "  But," 
said  I  interrupting  him,  "  how  can  that 
be,  seeing  that  all  Day  you  were  of  a 
very  long  Stature,  and  now  you  are 
very  short ;  that  all  day  long  you  had  a 
weak  and  broken  Voice,  and  now  you 
have  a  clear  and  vigorous  one ;  that,  in 
short,  all  day  long  you  were  a  Grey- 
headed old  Man,  and  are  now  a  brisk 
young  Blade :  Is  it  then  that  whereas 
in  my  Country,  the  Progress  is  from 
Life  to  Death ;  Animals  here  go  Retro- 
grade from  Death  to  Life,  and  by  grow- 
ing old  become  young  again." 


92     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

"  So  soon  as  I  had  spoken  to  the 
Prince,"  said  he,  "  and  received  orders 
to  bring  you  to  Court,  I  went  and  found 
you  out  where  you  were,  and  have 
brought  you  hither;  but  the  Body  I 
acted  in  was  so  tired  out  with  the 
Journey,  that  all  its  Organs  refused 
me  their  ordinary  Functions,  so  that  I 
enquired  the  way  to  the  Hospital; 
where  being  come  in  I  found  the  Body 
of  a  young  Man,  just  then  expired  by  a 
very  odd  Accident,  but  yet  very  com- 
mon in  this  Country.  I  drew  near 
him,  pretending  to  find  motion  in  him 
still,  and  protesting  to  those  who  were 
present,  that  he  was  not  dead,  and  that 
what  they  thought  to  be  the  cause  of 
his  Death,  was  no  more  but  a  bare 
Lethargy;  so  that  without  being  per- 
ceived, I  put  my  Mouth  to  his,  by 
which  I  entred  as  with  a  breath.:  Then 
down  dropt  my  old  Carcass,  and  as  if  I 
had  been  that  young  Man,  I  rose  and 
came  to  look  for  you,  leaving  the  Spec- 
tators crying  a  Miracle. " 

With  this  they  came  to  call  us  to  Sup- 


The  Manner  of  Eating     93 

per,  and  I  followed  ray  Guide  into  a 
Parlour  richly  furnished;  but  where  I 
found  nothing  fit  to  be  eaten.  No  Vic- 
tuals appearing,  when  I  was  ready  to  die 
of  Hunger,  made  me  ask  him  where  the 
Cloath  was  laid :  But  I  could  not  hear 
what  he  answered,  for  at  that  instant 
Three  or  Four  young  Boys,  Children  of 
the  House,  drew  near,  and  with  much 
Civility  stript  me  to  the  Shirt.  This 
new  Ceremony  so  astonished  me,  that  I 
durst  not  so  much  as  ask  my  Pretty 
Valets  de  Chamber  the  cause  of  it ;  and 
I  cannot  tell  how  my  Guide,  who  asked 
me  what  I  would  begin  with,  could 
draw  from  me  these  two  Words,  A 
Potage ;  but  hardly  had  I  pronounced 
them,  when  I  smelt  the  odour  of  the 
most  agreeable  Soop  that  ever  steamed 
in  the  rich  Gluttons  Nose :  I  was  about 
to  rise  from  my  place,  that  I  might 
trace  that  delicious  Scent  to  its  source, 
but  my  Carrier  hindered  me :  "  Whither 
are  you  going,"  said  he,  "  we  shall  fetch 
a  walk  by  and  by ;  but  now  it  is  time  to 
Eat,  make  an  end  of  your  Potage,  and 


94     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

then  we'll  have  something  else :"  "  And 
where  the  Devil  is  the  Pot  age  ?  "  an- 
swered I  half  angry :  "  Have  you  laid  a 
wager  you'll  jeer  me  all  this  Day?  "  "  I 
thought,"  replied  he,  "  that  at  the  Town 
we  came  from,  you  had  seen  your  Master 
or  some  Bo[dy]  else  at  meal,  and  that's 
the  reason  I  told  you  not,  how  People 
feed  in  this  Country.  Seeing  then  you 
are  still  ignorant,  you  must  know,  that 
here  they  live  on  Steams.  The  art  of 
Cookery  is  to  shut  up  in  great  Vessels, 
made  on  purpose,  the  Exhalations  that 
proceed  from  the  Meat  whilst  it  is  a 
dressing ;  and  when  they  have  provided 
enough  of  several  sorts  and  several 
tastes,  according  to  the  Appetite  of 
those  they  treat ;  they  open  one  Vessel 
where  that  Steam  is  kept,  and  after  that 
another ;  and  so  on  till  the  Company  be 
satisfied. 

"  Unless  you  have  already  lived  after 
this  manner,  you  would  never  think, 
that  the  Nose  without  Teeth  and  Gul- 
let can  perform  the  office  of  the 
Mouth  in  feeding  a  Man;  but  I'll  make 


The  Manner  of  Eating      95 

you  experience  it  your  self."  He  had 
no  sooner  said  so,  but  I  found  so  many 
agreeable  and  nourishing  Vapours  enter 
the  Parlour,  one  after  another,  that  in 
less  than  half  a  quarter  of  an  Hour  I  was 
fully  satisfied.  When  we  were  got  up ; 
"This  is  not  a  matter,"  said  he,  amuch 
to  be  admired  at,  seeing  you  cannot 
have  lived  so  long,  and  not  have  ob- 
served, that  all  sorts  of  Cooks,  who  eat 
less  than  People  of  another  Calling, 
are  neverthless  much  Fatter.  Whence 
proceeds  that  Plumpness,  d'ye  think, 
unless  it  be  from  the  Steams  that  con- 
tinually environ  them,  which  penetrate 
into  their  Bodies  and  fatten  them? 
Hence  it  is,  that  the  People  of  this 
World  enjoy  a  more  steady  and  vigor- 
ous Health,  by  reason  that  their  Food 
hardly  engenders  any  Excrements, 
which  are  in  a  manner  the  original *  of 
all  Diseases.  You  were,  perhaps,  sur- 
prised, that  before  supper  you  were 

1  Origin.     Cf.  pp.  137,  170,   174  ;   and  cf.  Shaks- 
pere,  Henry  IV.,  Part  II. : 

"It  hath  its  original  from  much  grief." 


96     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

stript,  since  it  is  a  Custom  not  practised 
in  your  Country;  but  it  is  the  fashion 
of  this,  and  for  this  end  used,  that  the 
Animal  may  be  the  more  transpirable  to 
the  Fumes. "  "  Sir,"  answered  I,  "  there 
is  a  great  deal  of  probability  in  what 
you  say,  and  I  have  found  somewhat  of 
it  my  self  by  experience ;  but  I  must 
frankly  tell  you,  That  not  being  able 
to  Unbrute  my  self  so  soon,  I, should 
be  glad  to  feel  something  that  my 
Teeth  might  fix  upon :"  He  promised  I 
should,  but  not  before  next  Day ;  "  be- 
cause," said  he,  "to  Eat  so  soon  after 
your  meal  would  breed  Crudities." 

After  we  had  discoursed  a  little 
longer,  we  went  up  to  a  Chamber  to  take 
our  rest ;  a  Man  met  us  on  the  top  of  the 
Stairs,  who  having  attentively  Eyed  us, 
led  me  into  a  Closet  where  the  floor  was 
strowed  with  Orange- Flowers  Three 
Foot  thick,  and  my  Spirit  into  another 
filled  with  Gilly-Flowers  and  Jessa- 
mines :  Perceiving  me  amazed  at  that 
Magnificence,  he  told  me  they  were 
the  Beds  of  the  Country.  In  fine,  we 


The  Manner  of  Lighting    97 

laid  our  selves  down  to  rest  in  our  sev- 
eral Cells,  and  so  soon  as  I  had  stretched 
my  self  out  upon  my  Flowers,  by  the 
light  of  Thirty  large  Glow-worms  shut 
up  in  a  Crystal,  (being  the  only  Candles 
Charon  uses,  * )  I  perceived  the  Three  or 
Four  Boys  who  had  stript  me  before 
Supper,  One  tickling  my  Feet,  another 
my  Thighs,  the  Third  my  Flanks,  and 
the  Fourth  my  Arms,  and  all  so  deli- 
cately and  daintily,  that  in  less  than  in 
a  Minute  I  was  fast  asleep. 

Next  Morning  by  Sun-rising  my 
Spirit  came  into  my  Room  and  said  to 
me,  "  Now  I'll  be  as  good  as  my  Word, 
you  shall  breakfast  this  Morning  more 
solidly  that  you  Supped  last  Night." 
With  that  I  got  up,  and  he  led  me  by 
the  Hand  to  a  place  at  the  back  of  the 

1  u  .  .  .  On  ne  s'attendait  guere 
De  voir  [Charon]  en  cette  affaire!" 

In  fact,  our  translator  has  made  an  amusing  mis- 
take, for  which  the  printer  of  the  1661  edition  is 
perhaps  partly  responsible;  in  that  edition  we  read  : 
"  (Caron  ne  se  sert  pas  d'autres  chandelles)," 
which  should  of  course  be,  as  in  the  other  editions, 
14  Car  on  ...  ;  "  "  For  they  use  no  other  candles." 
7 


98     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Garden,  where  one  of  the  Children  of 
the  House  stayed  for  us,  with  a  Piece  in 
his  Hand  much  like  to  one  of  our  Fire- 
Locks.  He  asked  my  Guide  if  I  would 
have  a  dozen  of  Larks,  because  Baboons 
(one  of  which  he  took  me  to  be,)  loved 
to  feed  on  them?  I  had  hardly  an- 
swered, Yes,  when  the  Fowler  dis- 
charged a  Shot,  and  Twenty  or  Thirty 
Larks  fell  at  our  Feet  ready  Roasted. 
This,  thought  I  presently  with  my  self, 
verifies  the  Proverb  in  our  World,  of  a 
Country  where  Larks  fall  ready  Roast- 
ed ;  without  doubt  it  has  been  made  by 
some  Body  that  came  from  hence.  "  Fall 
too,  fall  too,"  said  my  Spirit,  "don't 
spare ;  for  they  have  a  knack  of  min- 
gling a  certain  Composition  with  their 
Powder  and  Shot,  which  Kills,  Plucks, 
Roasts,  and  Seasons  the  Fowl  all  at 
once. "  I  took  up  some  of  them,  and  eat 
them  upon  his  word;  and  to  say  the 
Truth,  In  all  my  Life  time  I  never  eat 
any  thing  so  delicious. 

Having    thus    Breakfasted    we    pre- 
pared to  be  gone,   and  with  a  Thou- 


Paying  the  Scot  99 

sand  odd  Faces,  which  they  use  when 
they  would  shew  their  Love,  our  Land- 
lord received  a  Paper  from  my  Spirit. 
I  asked  him,  if  it  was  a  Note  for  the 
Reckoning?  He  replied,  No,  that  all 
was  paid,  and  that  it  was  a  Copy  of 
Verses.  "  How!  Verses,"  said  I,  "are 
your  Inn  -  Keepers  here  curious  of 
Rhime  then?"  "It's,"  said  he,  "the 
Money  of  the  Country,  and  the  charge 
we  have  been  at  here,  hath  been  com- 
puted to  amount  to  Three  Couplets,  or 
Six  Verses,  which  I  have  given  him.  I 
did  not  fear  we  should  out-run  the  Con- 
stable; for  though  we  should  Pamper 
our  selves  for  a  whole  Week,  we  could 
not  spend  a  Sonnet,  and  I  have  Four 
about  me,  besides  Two  Epigrams,  Two 
Odes,  and  an  Eclogue." 

"Would  to  God,"  said  I,  "it  were 
so  in  our  World;  for  I  know  a  good 
many  honest  Poets  there  who  are 
ready  to  Starve,  and  who  might  live 
plentifully  if  that  Money  would  pass 
in  Payment."  I  farther  asked  him,  If 
these  Verses  would  always  serve,  if  one 


ioo    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Transcribed  them?  He  made  answer, 
No,  and  so  went  on :  "  When  an  Author 
has  Composed  any,  he  carries  them  to 
the  Mint,  where  the  sworn  Poets  of  the 
Kingdom  sit  in  Court.  There  these 
versifying  Officers  essay  the  pieces ;  and 
if  they  be  judged  Sterling,  they  are 
rated  not  according  to  their  Coyn; 
that'~s  to  say,  That  a  Sonnet  is  not  al- 
ways as  good  as  a  Sonnet ;  but  accord- 
ing to  the  intrinsick  value  of  the  piece ; 
so  that  if  any  one  Starve,  he  must  be 
a  Blockhead :  For  Men  of  Wit  make 
always  good  Chear."  With  Extasie  I 
was  admiring  the  judicious  Policy  of 
that  Country,  when  he  proceeded  in 
this  manner : 

"  There  are  others  who  keep  Publick- 
house  after  a  far  different  manner: 
When  one  is  about  to  be  gone,  they  de- 
mand, proportionably  to  the  Charges, 
an  Acquittance  for  the  other  World; 
and  when  that  is  given  them,  they  write 
down  in  a  great  Register,  which  they 
call  Doomsday's  Book,  much  after  this 
manner :  Item,  The  value  of  so  many 


Languages  and  Manners    101 

Verses,  delivered' such  a  Day,  Lo  such  a 
Person,  whicU  he  is:  to  pay  upcn  the 
receipt  of  this  Acquittance,. cut  ot  his 
readiest  Cash:  And  when  they  find 
themselves  in  danger  of  Death,  they 
cause  these  Registers  to  be  Chopt  in 
pieces,  and  swallow  them  down;  be- 
cause they  believe,  that  if  they  were 
not  thus  digested,  they  would  be  good 
for  nothing." 

This  Conversation  was  no  hinderance 
to  our  Journey;  for  my  Four-legged 
Porter  jogged  on  under  me,  and  I  rid 
stradling  on  his  Back.  I  shall  not  be 
particular  in  relating  to  you  all  the 
Adventures  that  happened  to  us  on 
our  way,  till  we  arrived  at  length  at  the 
Town  where  the  King  holds  his  Resi- 
dence. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Of  the  little  Spaniard  whom  he  met 
there,  and  of  his  quaint  Wit ;  of 
Vacuum,  Specific  Weights,  and  sun- 
dry other  Philosophical  Matters. 

I  was  no  sooner  come,  but  they 
carryed  me  to  the  Palace,  where  the 
Grandees  received  me  with  more  Mod- 
eration, than  the  People  had  done  as  I 
passed  the  Streets:  But  both  great 
and  small  concluded,  That  without 
doubt  I  was  the  Female  of  the  Queen's 
little  Animal.  My  Guide  was  my  In- 
terpreter; and  yet  he  himself  under- 
stood not  the  Riddle,  and  knew  not 
what  to  make  of  that  little  Animal  of 
the  Queen's ;  but  we  were  soon  satisfied 
as  to  that;  for  the  King  having  some 
time  considered  me,  ordered  it  to  be 
brought,  and  about  half  an  hour  after 
I  saw  a  company  of  Apes,  wearing 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     103 

Ruffs  and  Breeches,  come  in,  and 
amongst  them  a  little  Man  almost  of 
my  own  Built,  for  he  went  on  Two 
Legs ;  so  soon  as  he  perceived  me,  he 
Accosted  me  with  a  Criado  de  vuestra 
merced?  I  answered  his  Greeting 
much  in  the  same  Terms.  But  alas! 
no  sooner  had  they  seen  us  talk  togeth- 
er, but  they  believed  their  Conjecture 
to  be  true ;  and  so,  indeed,  it  seemed ; 
for  he  of  all  the  By-standers,  that  past 
the  most  favourable  Judgment  upon  us, 
protested  that  our  Conversation  was  a 
Chattering  we  kept  for  Joy  at  our  meet- 
ing again. 

That  little  Man  told  me,  that  he 
was  an  European,  a  Native  of  old  Cas- 
tille : 2  That  he  had  found  a  means 
by  the  help  of  Birds 3  to  mount  up 

1  "Your  excellency's  servant." 

2  Domingo  Gonzales,  the  hero  of  Bishop  Francis 
Godwin's   The  Man  in  the  Moone  (see  p.  4,  note), 
who  says  of  himself:   "I  must  acknowledge  my 
Stature  is  so  little,  as  I  think  no  Man  living  is  less." 

3  The  engraving  opposite,  showing  how  he  was 
carried  up  by  his  birds,  is  copied  from  an  old  edi- 
tion of  The  Man  in  the  Moone.     The  other  winged 
figures  •  about     him    are    supposed    to    represent 


104     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

to  the  World  of  the  Moon,  where 
then  we  were:  That  falling  into  the 
Queen's  Hands,  she  had  taken  him  for 
a  Monkey,  because  Fate  would  have  it 
so,  That  in  that  Country  they  cloath 
Apes  in  a  Spanish  Dress;  and  that 
upon  his  arrival,  being  found  in  that 
habit,  she  had  made  no  doubt  but  he 
was  of  the  same  kind.  "  It  could  not 
otherwise  be,"  replied  I,  "but  having 
tried  all  Fashions  of  Apparel  upon 
them,  none  were  found  so  Ridiculous, 
and  by  consequence  more  becoming  a 
kind  of  Animals  which  are  only  enter- 
tained for  Pleasure  and  Diversion." 
"  That  shews  you  little  understand  the 
Dignity  of  our  Nation,"  answered  he, 
"for  whom  the  Universe  breeds  Men 
only  to  be  our  Slaves,  and  Nature  pro- 
duces nothing  but  objects  of  Mirth  and 
Laughter."  He  then  intreated  me  to 
tell  him,  how  I  durst  be  so  bold  as  to 
Scale  the  Moon  with  the  Machine  I  told 
him  of?  I  answered,  That  it  was  be- 

demons  who  attacked  him  when  just  above  "the 
middle  region." 


The  VOYAGE  to  thcWQRLP  imheMooN 


THE  "LITTLE  SPANIARD'S"  TRIP  TO  THE  MOON 


.  .From  an  Engraving  in  "  Th*  Strange  Voyage  of  Domingo 
Gonzales  to  the  World  in  the  Moon." 


Of  the   Spaniard,  Etc     105 

cause  he  had  carried  away  the  Birds, 
which  I  intended  to  have  made  use  of. 
He  smiled  at  this  Raillery ;  and  about  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  after,  the  King 
commanded  the  Keeper  of  the  Monkeys 
to  carry  us  back.  The  King's  Pleasure 
was  punctually  obeyed ;  at  which  I  was 
very  glad,  for  the  satisfaction  I  had,  of 
having  a  Mate  to  converse  with  during 
the  solitude  of  my  Brutification. 

One  Day  my  Male  (for  I  was  taken 
for  the  Female)  told  me,  That  the 
true  reason  which  had  obliged  him 
to  travel  all  over  the  Earth,  and  at 
length  to  abandon  it  for  the  Moon,  was 
that  he  could  not  find  so  much  as  one 
Country  where  even  Imagination  was  at 
liberty.  "  Look  ye,"  said  he,  "how  the 
Wittiest  thing  you  can  say,  unless  you 
wear  a  Cornered  CapJ  if  it  thwart  the 
Principles  of  the  Doctors  of  the  Robe, 
you  are  an  Ideot,  a  Fool,  and  some- 
thing worse  perhaps.  I  was  about  to 
have  been  put  into  the  Inquisition  at 
home,  for  maintaining  to  the  Pedants 
Teeth,  That  there  was  a  Vacuum,  and 


106     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

that  I  knew  no  one  matter  in  the 
World  more  Ponderous  than  another." 
I  asked  him,  what  probable  Arguments 
he  had,  to  confirm  so  new  an  Opinion? 
"To  evince  that,"  answered  he,  "you 
must  suppose  that  there  is  but  one  Ele- 
ment ;  for  though  we  see  Water,  Earth, 
Air  and  Fire  distinct,  yet  are  they  never 
found  to  be  so  perfectly  pure  but  that 
there  still  remains  some  Mixture.  For 
example,  When  you  behold  Fire,  it  is 
not  Fire  but  Air  much  extended;  the 
Air  is  but  Water  much  dilated ;  Water 
is  but  liquified  Earth,  and  the  Earth  it 
self  but  condensed  Water ;  and  thus  if 
you  weigh  Matter  seriously,  you'll  find 
it  is  but  one,  which  like  an  excellent 
Comedian  here  below  acts  all  Parts, 
in  all  sorts  of  Dresses :  Otherwise  we 
must  admit  as  many  Elements  as  there 
are  kinds  of  Bodies:  And  if  you  ask 
me  why  Fire  burns,  and  Water  cools, 
since  it  is  but  one  and  the  same  matter, 
I  answer,  That  that  matter  acts  by 
Sympathy,  according  to  the  Disposition 
it  is  in  at  the  time  when  it  acts.  Fire, 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     107 

which  is  nothing*  but  Earth  also,  more 
dilated  than  is  fit  for  the  constitution 
of  Air,  strives  to  change  into  it  self,  by 
Sympathy,  what  ever  it  meets  with: 
Thus  the  heat  of  Coals,  being  the  most 
subtile  Fire,  and  most  proper  to  pene- 
trate a  Body,  at  first  slides  through  the 
pores  of  our  Skin ;  and  because  it  is  a 
new  matter  that  fills  us,  it  makes  us 
exhale  in  Sweat ;  that  Sweat  dilated  by 
the  Fire  is  converted  to  a  Steam,  and 
becomes  Air;  that  Air  being  farther 
ratified  by  the  heat  of  the  Antiperista- 
sis,  or  of  the  Neighbouring  Stars,  is 
called  Fire,  and  the  Earth  abandoned 
by  the  Cold  and  Humidity  which  were 
Ligaments  to  the  whole,  falls  to  the 
ground:  Water,  on  the  other  hand, 
though  it  no  ways  differ  from  the  mat- 
ter of  Fire,  but  in  that  it  is  closer, 
burns  us  not ;  because  that  being  dense 
by  Sympathy,  it  closes  up  the  Bodies  it 
meets  with,  and  the  Cold  we  feel  is  no 
more  but  the  effect  of  our  Flesh  con- 
tracting it  self,  because  of  the  Vicinity 
of  Earth  or  Water,  which  constrains  it 


io8     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

to  a  Resemblance.  Hence  it  is,  that 
those  who  are  troubled  with  a  Dropsie 
convert  all  their  nourishment  into 
Water;  and  the  Cholerick  convert  all 
the  Blood  that  is  formed  in  their  Liver 
into  Choler. 

"  It  being  then  supposed,  that  there 
is  but  one  Element ;  it  is  most  certain, 
that  all  Bodies,  according  to  their  sev- 
eral qualities,  incline  equally  towards 
the  Center  of  the  Earth.  But  you'll 
ask  me,  Why  then  does  Iron,  Metal, 
Earth  and  Wood,  descend  more  swiftly 
to  the  Center  than  a  Sponge,  if  it  be  not 
that  it  is  full  of  Air  which  naturally 
tends  upwards?  That  is  not  at  all 
the  Reason,  and  thus  I  make  it  out: 
Though  a  Rock  fall  with  greater  Rapid- 
ity than  a  Feather,  both  of  them  have 
the  same  inclination  for  the  Journey; 
but  a  Cannon  Bullet,  for  instance, 
were  the  Earth  pierced  through,  would 
precipitate  with  greater  haste  to  the 
Center  thereof  than  a  Bladder  full  of 
Wind ;  and  the  reason  is,  because  that 
mass  of  Metal  is  a  great  deal  of  Earth 


Of  the   Spaniard,  Etc     109 

contracted  into  a  little  space,  and  that 
Wind  a  very  little  Earth  in  a  large 
space:  For  all  the  parts  of  Matter, 
being  so  closely  joined  together  in  the 
Iron,  encrease  their  force  by  their 
Union ;  because  being  thus  compacted, 
they  are  many  that  Fight  against  a  few, 
seeing  a  parcel  of  Air  equal  to  the  Bul- 
let in  Bigness  is  not  equal  in  Quantity. 
"  Not  to  insist  on  a  long  Deduction  of 
Arguments  to  prove  this,  tell  me  in 
good  earnest,  How  a  Pike,  a  Sword  or 
a  Dagger  wounds  us?  If  it  be  not  be- 
cause the  Steel,  being  a  matter  wherein 
the  parts  are  more  continuous  and 
more  closely  knit  together  than  your 
Flesh  is,  whose  Pores  and  Softness 
shew  that  it  contains  but  very  little 
Matter  within  a  great  extent  of  Place ; 
and  that  the  point  of  the  Steel  that 
pricks  us,  being  almost  an  innumerable 
number  of  Particles  of  matter  against 
a  very  little  Flesh,  it  forces  it  to  yeild 
to  the  stronger,  in  the  same  manner  as 
a  Squadron  in  close  order  will  easily 
break  through  a  more  -open  Battallion ; 


1 1  o     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

for  why  does  a  Bit  of  red  hot  Iron 
burn  more  than  a  Log  of  Wood  all  on 
Fire?  Unless  it  be,  that  in  the  Iron 
there  is  more  Fire  in  a  small  space, 
seeing  it  adheres  to  all  the  parts  of  the 
Metal,  than  in  the  Wood  which  being 
very  Spongy  by  consequence  contains 
a  great  deal  of  Vacuity ;  and  that  Va- 
cuity, being  but  a  Privation  of  Being, 
cannot  receive  the  form  of  Fire.  But, 
you'll  object,  you  suppose  a  Vacuum, 
as  if  you  had  proved  it,  and  that's  beg- 
ging of  the  question:  Well  then  I'll 
prove  it,  and  though  that  difficulty  be 
the  Sister  of  the  Gordian  knot,  yet  my 
Arms  are  strong  enough  to  become  its 
Alexander. 

"Let  that  vulgar  Beast,  then,  who 
does  not  think  it  self  a  Man,  had  it  not 
been  told  so,  answer  me  if  it  can :  Sup- 
pose now  there  be  but  one  Matter,  as 
I  think  I  have  sufficiently  proved; 
whence  comes  it,  that  according  to  its 
Appetite  it  enlarges  or  contracts  its 
self;  whence  is  it,  that  a  piece  of  Earth 
by  being  Condensed  becomes  a  Stone? 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     1 1 1 

Is  it  that  the  parts  of  that  Stone  are 
placed  one  with  another,  in  such  a  man- 
ner that  wherever  that  grain  of  Sand 
is  settled,  even  there,  or  in  the  same 
point,  another  grain  of  Sand  is  Lodged? 
That  cannot  be,  no  not  according  to 
their  own  Principles,  seeing  there  is  no 
Penetration  of  Bodies:  But  that  mat- 
ter must  have  crowded  together,  and  if 
you  will,  abridged  it  self,  so  that  it  hath 
filled  some  place  which  was  empty  be- 
forec  To  say  that  it  is  incomprehensi- 
ble, that  there  should  be  a  Nothing  in 
the  World,  that  we  are  in  part  made  up 
of  Nothing:  Why  not,  pray?  Is  not 
the  whole  World  wrapt  up  in  Nothing? 
Since  you  yield  me  this  point,  then 
confess  ingeniously,  that  it's  as  rational 
that  the  World  should  have  a  Nothing 
within  it,  as  Nothing  about  it. 

"  I  well  perceive  you'll  put  the  ques- 
tion to  me,  Why  Water  compressed  in 
a  Vessel  by  the  Frost  should  break  it,  if 
it  be  not  to  hinder  a  Vacuity?  But  I 
answer,  That  that  only  happens,  be- 
cause the  Air  overhead,  which  as  well 


U2     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

as  Earth  and  Water  tends  to  the  Cen- 
ter, meeting  with  an  empty  Tun  by  the 
way,  takes  tip  his  Lodging  there :  If  it 
find  the  pores  of  that  Vessel,  that's  to 
say,  the  ways  that  lead  to  that  void 
place,  too  narrow,  too  long,  and  too 
crooked,  with  impatience  it  breaks 
through  and  arrives  at  its  Tun. 

"  But  not  to  trifle  away  time,  in  an- 
swering all  their  objections,  I  dare  be 
bold  to  say,  That  if  there  were  no  Va- 
cuity, there  could  be  no  Motion;  or 
else  a  Penetration  of  Bodies  must  be 
admitted;  for  it  would  be  a  little  too 
ridiculous  to  think,  that  when  a  Gnat 
pushes  back  a  parcel  of  Air  with  its 
Wings,  that  parcel  drives  another  be- 
fore it,  that  other  another  still ;  and  that 
so  the  stirring  of  the  little  Toe  of  a 
Flea  should  raise  a  bunch  upon  the 
Back  of  the  Universe.  When  they  are 
at  a  stand,  they  have  recourse  to  Rare- 
faction :  But  in  good  earnest,  How  can 
it  be  when  a  Body  is  ratified,  that  one 
Particle  of  the  Mass  does  recede  from 
another  Particle,  without  leaving  an 


Of  the   Spaniard,  Etc      1 1  3 

empty  Space  betwixt  them;  must  not 
the  two  Bodies,  which  are  just  sepa- 
rated, have  been  at  the  same  time  in 
the  same  place  of  this ;  and  that  so  they 
must  have  all  three  penetrated  each 
other?  I  expect  you'll  ask  me,  why 
through  a  Reed,  a  Syringe  or  a  Pump, 
Water  is  forced  to  ascend  contrary  to 
its  inclination?  To  which  I  answer, 
That  that's  by  violence,  and  that  it  is 
not  the  fear  of  a  Vaciiity  that  turns  it 
out  of  the  right  way ;  but  that  being 
linked  to  the  Air  by  an  imperceptible 
Chain,  it  rises  when  the  Air,  to  which 
it  is  joined,  is  ratified. 

"That's  no  such  knotty  Difficulty, 
when  one  knows  the  perfect  Circle 
and  the  delicate  Concatenation  of  the 
Elements :  For  if  you  attentively  con- 
sider the  Slime  which  joines  the  Earth 
and  Water  together  in  Marriage,  you'll 
find  that  it  is  neither  Earth  nor  Water ; 
but  the  Mediator  betwixt  these  Two 
Enemies.  In  the  same  manner,  the 
Water  and  Air  reciprocally  send  a  Mist, 
that  dives  into  the  Humours  of  both,  to 
8 


H4     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

negotiate  a  Peace  betwixt  them;  and 
the  Air  is  reconciled  to  the  Fire,  by 
means  of  an  interposing  Exhalation 
which  Unites  them." 

I  believe  he  would  have  proceeded  in 
his  Discourse,  had  they  not  brought  us 
our  Victuals;  and  seeing  we  were  a 
hungry,  I  stopt  my  Ears  to  his  dis- 
course, and  opened  my  Stomack  to  the 
Food  they  gave  us. 

I  remember  another  time,  when  we 
were  upon  our  Philosophy,  for  neither 
of  us  took  pleasure  to  Discourse  of  mean 
things:  "I  am  vexed,"  said  he,  "to 
see  a  Wit  of  your  stamp  infected  with 
the  Errors  of  the  Vulgar.  You  must 
know  then,  in  spight  of  the  Pedantry 
of  Aristotle  with  which  your  Schools 
in  France  still  ring,  That  every  thing 
is  in  every  thing;  that's  to  say,  for  in- 
stance, That  in  the  Water  there  is  Fire, 
in  the  Fire  Water,  in  the  Air  Earth, 
and  in  the  Earth  Air:  Though  that 
Opinion  makes  Scholars  open  their 
Eyes  as  big  as  Sawcers,  yet  it  is  easier 
to  prove  it,  than  perswade  it.  For  1 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     1 1 5 

ask  them,  in  the  first  place,  if  Water 
does  not  breed  Filth :  If  they  deny  it, 
let  them  dig  a  Pit,  fill  it  with  meer  Ele- 
ment,1 and  to  prevent  all  blind  Objec- 
tions let  them  if  they  please  strain  it 
through  a  Strainer,  and  I'll  oblige  my 
self,  in  case  they  find  no  Filth  therein 
within  a  certain  time,  to  drink  up  all 
the  Water  they  have  poured  into  it: 
But  if  they  find  Filth,  as  I  make  no 
doubt  on't;  it  is  a  convincing  Argu- 
ment that  there  is  both  Salt  and  Fire 
there.  Consequentially  now,  to  find 
Water  in  Fire ;  I  take  it  to  be*  no  diffi- 
cult Task.  For  let  them  chuse  Fire, 
even  that  which  is  most  abstracted  from 
Matter,  as  Comets  are,  there  is  a  great 
deal  in  them  still ;  seeing  if  that  Unctu- 
ous Humour,  whereof  they  are  engen- 
dered, being  reduced  to  a  Sulphur  by 
the  heat  of  the  Antiperistasis  which 
kindles  them,  did  not  find  a  curb  of  its 
Violence  in  the  humid  Cold  that  quali- 
fies and  resists  it,  it  would  spend  it  self 

1  With  the  pure  element  (Lat.,  merits) ;  i.e.,  water 
alone  unmixed  with  impurities  or  other  elements. 


1 1 6     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

in  a  trice  like  Lightning.  Now  that 
there  is  Air  in  the  Earth,  they  will  not 
deny  it ;  or  otherwise  they  have  never 
heard  of  the  terrible  Earth-quakes,  that 
have  so  often  shaken  the  Mountains  of 
Sicily:  Besides,  the  Earth  is  full  of 
Pores,  even  to  the  least  grains  of  Sand 
that  com[pose]  it.  Nevertheless  no 
Man  hath  as  yet  said,  that  these  Hollows 
were  filled  with  Vacuity :  It  will  not 
be  taken  amiss  then,  I  hope,  if  the  Air 
takes  up  its  quarters  there.  It  remains 
to  be  proved,  that  there  is  Earth  in  the 
Air ;  but  I  think  it  scarcely  worth  my 
pains,  seeing  you  are-  convinced  of  it, 
as  often  as  you  see  such  numberless 
Legions  of  Atomes  fall  upon  your 
heads,  as  even  stiffle  Arithmetick. 

"  But  let  us  pass  from  simple  to  com- 
pound Bodies,  they'll  furnish  me  with 
much  more  frequent  Subjects;  and  to 
demonstrate  that  all  things  are  in  all 
things,  not  that  they  change  into  one 
another,  as  your  Peripateticks  Juggle : l 
for  I  will  maintain  to  their  Teeth,  that 

i  Fr.,gazouillent,  babble. 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     117 

the  Principles  mingle,  separate,  and 
mingle  again  in  such  a  manner,  that 
that  hath  been  made  Water  by  the  Wise 
Creator  of  the  World,  will  always  be 
Water;  I  shall  suppose  no  Maxime,  as 
they  do,  but  what  I  prove. 

"  And  therefore  take  a  Billet,  or  any 
other  combustible  stuff,  and  set  Fire  to 
it,  they'll  say  when  it  is  in  a  Flame, 
That  what  was  Wood  is  now  become 
Fire ;  but  I  maintain  the  contrary,  and 
that  there  is  no  more  Fire  in  it,  when 
it  is  all  in  Flame,  than  before  it  was 
kindled ;  but  that  which  before  was  hid 
in  the  Billet,  and  by  the  Humidity  and 
Cold  hindered  from  acting;  being  now 
assisted  by  the  Stranger,  hath  rallied 
its  forces  against  the  Phlegm  that 
choaked  it,  and  commanding  the  Field 
of  Battle,  that  was  possessed  by  its 
Enemy,  triumphs  over  his  Jaylor  and 
appears  without  Fetters.  Don't  you 
see  how  the  Water  flees  out  at  the  two 
ends  of  the  Billet,  hot  and  smoaking 
from  the  Fight  it  was  engaged  in. 
That  flame  which  you  see  rise  on  high 


1 1 8     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

is  the  purer  Fire,  unpestered  from  the 
Matter,  and  by  consequence  the  readi- 
est to  return  home  to  it  self:  Never- 
theless it  Unites  it  self  by  tapering  into 
a  Piramide  till  it  rise  to  a  certain 
height,  that  it  may  pierce  through  the 
thick  Humidity  of  the  Air  which  re- 
sists it ;  but  as  mounting  it  disengaged 
it  self  by  little  and  little  from  the  vio- 
lent company  of  its  Landlords;  so  it 
diffuses  it  self,  because  then  it  meets 
with  nothing  that  thwarts  its  passage, 
which  negligence,  though,  is  many 
times  the  cause  of  a  second  Captivity : 
For  marching  stragglingly,  it  wanders 
sometimes  into  a  Cloud,  and  if  it  meet 
there  with  a  Party  of  its  own  sufficient 
to  make  head  against  a  Vapour,  they 
Engage,  Grumble,  Thunder  and  Roar, 
and  the  Death  of  Innocents  is  many 
times  the  effect  of  the  animated  Rage 
of  those  inanimated  Things.  If,  when 
it  finds  it  self  pestered  among  those 
Crudities  of  the  middle  Region,  it  is 
not  strong  enough  to  make  a  defence, 
it  yields  to  its  Enemy  upon  discretion ; 


Of  the  Spaniard,  Etc     119 

which  by  its  weight  constrains  it  to  fall 
again  to  the  Earth :  And  this  Wretch, ' 
inclosed  in  a  drop  of  Rain,  may  per 
haps  fall  at  the  Foot  of  an  Oak,  whose 
Animal  Fire  will  invite  the  poor  Strag- 
gler to  take  a  Lodging  with  him ;  and 
thus  you  have  it  in  the  same  condition 
again  as  it  was  a  few  Days  before. 

"  But  let  us  trace  the  Fortune  of  the 
other  Elements  that  composed  that  Bil- 
let. The  Air  retreats  to  its  own  Quar- 
ters also,  though  blended  with  Vapours ; 
because  the  Fire  all  in  a  rage  drove 
them  briskly  out  Pell-mell  together. 
Now  you  have  it  serving  the  Winds  for  a 
Tennis-ball,  furnishing  Breath  to  Ani- 
mals, filling  up  the  Vacuities  that  Na- 
ture hath  left ;  and,  it  may  be  also,  wrapt 
up  in  a  drop  of  Dew,  suckling  the  thir- 
sty Leaves  of  that  Tree,  whither  our 
Fire  retreated :  The  Water  driven  from 
its  Throne  by  the  Flame,  being  by  the 
heat  elevated  to  the  Nursery  of  the  Me- 
teors, will  distil  again  in  Rain  upon  our 
Oak,  as  soon  as  upon  another ;  and  the 

1  Unfortunate  creature  ("  ce  malheureux  ") . 


i  20     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Earth  being  turned  to  Ashes,  and  then 
cured  of  its  Sterility,  either  by  the  nour- 
ishing Heat  of  a  Dunghill  on  which  it 
hath  been  thrown,  or  by  the  vegetative 
Salt  of  some  neighbouring  Plants,  or  by 
the  teeming  Waters  of  some  Rivers, 
may  happen  also  to  be  near  this  Oak, 
which  by  the  heat  of  its  Germ  will  attract 
it,  and  convert  it  into  a  part  of  its  bulk. 
"  In  this  manner,  these  Four  Elements 
undergo  the  same  Destiny,  and  return 
to  the  same  State,  which  they  quitted 
but  a  few  days  before :  So  that  it  may 
be  said,  that  all  that's  necessary  for  the 
composition  of  a  Tree,  is  in  a  Man ;  and 
in  a  Tree,  all  that's  necessary  for  mak- 
ing of  a  Man.  In  fine,  according  to 
this  way,  all  things  will  be  found  in  all 
things;  but  we  want  a  Prometheus,  to 
pluck  us  out  of  the  Bosom  of  Nature, 
and  render  us  sensible,  which  I  am  will- 
ing to  call  the  First  Matter"  1 

1  The  translator  has  here  mistaken  a  Dative  for 
an  Accusative.  The  sense  of  the  French  is:  "  But 
we  need  a  Prometheus  to  pluck  out  for  us,  from  the 
bosom  of  Nature,  and  make  tangible  to  us,  that 
which  I  will  call  First  Matter" 


Of  the   Spaniard,  Etc     121 

These  were  the  things,  I  think,  with 
which  we  past  the  time ;  for  that  little 
Spaniard  had  a  quaint  Wit.  Our  con- 
versation, however,  was  only  in  the 
Night  time ;  because  from  Six  a  clock 
in  the  morning  until  night,  Crowds  of 
the  People,  that  came  to  stare  at  us  in 
our  Lodging,  would  have  disturbed  us : 
For  some  threw  us  Stones,  others  Nuts, 
and  others  Grass;  there  was  no  talk, 
but  of  the  Kings  Beasts;  we  had  our 
Victuals  daily  at  set  hours.  I  cannot 
tell,  whether  it  was  that  I  minded  their 
Gestures  and  Tones  more  than  my  Male 
did :  But  I  learnt  sooner  than  he  to  un- 
derstand their  Language,  and  to  smatter 
a  little  of  it,  which  made  us  to  be  lookt 
upon  in  another  guess  manner  than 
formerly ;  and  the  news  thereupon  flew 
presently  all  over  the  Kingdom,  that 
two  Wild  Men  had  been  found,  who 
were  less  than  other  Men,  by  reason  of 
the  bad  Food  we  had  had  in  the  Des- 
arts ;  and  who  through  a  defect  of  their 
Parents  Seed,  had  not  the  fore  Legs 
strong  enough  to  support  their  Bodies. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Where  the  Author  comes  in  doubt, 
whether  he  be  a  Man,  an  Ape,  or  an 
Estridge ; 1  and  of  the  Opinion  of  the 
Lunar  Philosophers  concerning  Aris- 
totle. 

This  belief  would  have  taken  rooting 
by  being  spread,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  Learned  Men  of  the  Country,  who 
opposed  it,  saying,  That  it  was  horrid 
Impiety  to  believe  not  only  Beasts, 
but  Monsters,  to  be  of  their  kind.  It 
would  be  far  more  probable,  (added  the 
calmer  Sort)  that  our  Domestick  Beasts 
should  participate  of  the  privilege  of 
Humanity  and  by  consequence  of  Im- 
mortality, as  being  bred  in  our  Coun- 
try, than  a  Monstrous  Beast  that  talks 
of  being  born  I  know  not  where,  in  the 
Moon ;  and  then  observe  the  difference 

i  Ostrich. 


The  Author  in   Doubt     123 

betwixt  us  and  them.  We  walk  upon 
Four  Feet,  because  God  would  not  trust 
so  precious  a  thing  upon  weaker  Sup- 
porters, and  he  was  afraid  least  march- 
ing otherwise  some  Mischance  might 
befall  Man ;  and  therefore  he  took  the 
pains  to  rest  him  upon  four  Pillars, 
that  he  might  not  fall,  but  disdaining 
to  have  a  hand  in  the  Fabrick  of  these 
two  Brutes,  he  left  them  to  the  Caprice 
of  Nature,  who  not  concerning  her  self 
with  the  loss  of  so  small  a  matter,  sup- 
ported them  only  by  Two  Feet. 

"  Birds  themselves,"  said  they,  "have 
not  had  so  hard  measure  as  they;  for 
they  have  got  Feathers  at  least,  to  sup- 
ply the  weakness  of  their,  Legs,  and  to 
cast  themselves  in  the  Air  when  we 
pursue  them ;  whereas  Nature,  depriv- 
ing these  Monsters  of  Two  Legs,  hath 
disabled  them  from  scaping  our  Justice. 

"  Besides,  consider  a  little  how  they 
have  the  Head  raised  toward  Heaven; 
it  is  because  God  would  punish  them 
with  scarcity  of  all  things,  that  he  hath 
so  placed  them;  for  that  supplicant 


i  24     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Posture  shews  that  they  complain  to 
Heaven  of  him  that  Created  them,  and 
that  they  beg  Permission  to  make  their 
best  of  our  Leavings.  But  we,  on  the 
contrary,  have  the  Head  bending  down- 
wards, to  behold  the  Blessings  where- 
of we  are  the  Masters,  and  as  if  there 
were  nothing  in  Heaven  that  our  happy 
condition  needed  Envy." 

I  heard  such  Discourses,  or  the  like, 
daily  at  my  Lodge ;  and  at  length  they 
so  curbed  the  minds  of  the  people  as 
to  that  point,  that  it  was  decreed,  That 
at  best  I  should  only  pass  for  a  Parrot 
without  Feathers;  for  they  confirmed 
those  who  were  already  perswaded,  in 
that  I  had  but  two  Legs  no  more  than 
a  Bird,  which  was  the  cause  that  I  was 
put  into  a  Cage  by  express  orders  from 
the  Privy  Council. 

There  the  Queen's  Bird-keeper  tak- 
ing the  pains  daily  to  teach  me  to  Whis- 
tle, as  they  do  Stares  '  or  Singing-Birds 
here,  I  was  really  happy  in  that  I 
wanted  not  Food;  In  the  mean  while, 

1  Starlings. 


The  Author  in   Doubt     125 

with  the  Sonnets l  the  Spectators 
stunned  me  [with],  I  learnt  to  speak  as 
they  did;  so  that  when  I  was  got  to  be 
so  much  Master  of  the  Idiom  as  to  ex- 
press most  of  my  thoughts,  I  told  them 
the  finest  of  my  Conceits.  The  Quaint- 
ness  of  my  Sayings  was  already  the 
entertainment  of  all  Societies,  and  my 
Wit  was  so  much  esteemed  that  the 
Council  was  obliged  to  Publish  an 
Edict,  forbidding  all  People  to  believe 
that  I  was  endowed  with  Reason ;  with 
express  Commands  to  all  Persons,  of 
what  Quality  or  Condition  soever,  not 
to  imagine  but  that  whatever  I  did, 
though  never  so  wittily,  proceeded 
only  from  Instinct. 

Nevertheless,  the  decision  of  what  I 
was,  divided  the  Town  into  Two  Fac- 
tions. The  party  that  stood  for  me 
encreased  daily ;  and  at  length  in  spight 
of  the  Anathema,  whereby  they  en- 
deavoured to  scare  the  multitude: 
They  who  held  for  me,  demanded  a 
Convention  of  the  States,  for  determin- 

rFr.,  "  sornettes,"  nonsense. 


i  26     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

ing  that  Controversie.  It  was  long  be- 
fore they  could  agree  in  the  Choice  of 
those  who  should  have  a  Vote ;  but  the 
Arbitrators  pacified  the  heat,  by  mak- 
ing the  number  of  both  parties  equal, 
who  ordered  that  I  should  be  brought 
unto  the  Assembly,  as  I  was:  But  I 
was  treated  there  with  all  imaginable 
Severity.  My  Examiners,  amongst 
other  things,  put  questions  of  Philoso- 
phy to  me;  I  ingenuously  told  them 
all  that  my  Tutor  had  heretofore  taught 
me,  but  they  easily  refuted  me  by  more 
convincing  Arguments:  So  that  hav- 
ing nothing  to  answer  for  my  self,  my 
last  refuge  was  to  Principles  of  Arts- 
totle,  which  stood  me  in  as  little  stead, 
as  his  Sophisms  did ;  for  in  two  Words, 
they  let  me  see  the  falsity  of  them. 

"That  same  Aristotle,"  said  they, 
"  whose  Learning  you  brag  so  much  of, 
did  without  doubt  accommodate  Prin- 
ciples to  his  Philosophy ; *  instead  of  ac- 
commodating his  Philosophy  to  Princi- 
ples; and  besides  he  ought  to  have 

*  Wrest  the  facts  to  fit  his  theories. 


The  Author  an  Estridge    i  27 

proved  them  at  least  to  be  more  rational 
than  those  of  the  other  Sects  you  men- 
tioned to  us :  Wherefore  the  good  Man 
will  not  take  it  ill,  we  hope,  if  we  bid 
him  God  b'w'." 

In  fine,  when  they  perceived  that 
I  did  nothing  but  bawl,  that  they  were 
not  more  knowing  than  Aristotle^  and 
that  I  was  forbid  to  dispute  against 
those  who  denied  his  Principles :  They 
all  unanimously  concluded,  That  I  was 
not  a  Man,  but  perhaps  a  kind  of 
Estridge*  seeing  I  carried  my  Head 
upright  like  them,  that  I  walked  on  two 
Legs,  and  that,  in  short,  but  for  a  little 
Down,  I  was  every  way  like  one  of  them ; 
so  that  the  Bird-keeper  was  ordered  to 
have  me  back  to  my  Cage.  I  spent  my 
time  pretty  pleasantly  there,  for  be- 
cause I  had  correctly  learned  their 
Language,  the  whole  Court  took  pleas- 
ure to  make  me  prattle.  The  Queen's 
Maids,  among  the  rest,  slipt  always 
some  Boon  into  my  Basket,  and  the 
gentilest  of  them  all,  having  conceived 

i  Ostrich. 


128     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

some  kindness  for  me,  was  so  trans- 
ported with  Joy,  when  in  private  I  en- 
tertained her  with  the  manners  and 
divertisements  of  the  People  of  our 
World,  and  especially  our  Bells,  and 
other  Instruments  of  Musick,  that  she 
protested  to  me,  with  Tears  in  her 
Eyes,  That  if  ever  I  found  my  self  in  a 
condition  to  fly  back  again  to  our 
World,  she  would  follow  me  with  all 
her  Heart. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Of  the  Manner  of  making  War  in  the 
Moon  ;  and  of  how  the  Moon  is  not  the 
Moon,  nor  the  Earth  the  Earth. 

One  Morning  early,  having  started 
out  of  my  Sleep,  I  found  her  Taboring l 
upon  the  grates  of  rny  Cage :  "  Take 
good  heart,"  said  she  to  me,  "  yesterday 
in  Council  a  War  was  resolved  upon, 

against    the    King    — •^•*-==  2  I  hope 

that  during  the  hurry  of  Preparations, 
whilst  our  Monarch  and  his  Subjects 
are  absent,  I  may  find  an  occasion  to 
make  your  escape."  "How,  a  War," 

1  Drumming,  striking;    cf.   Nahum  ii.  7:    "And 
her  maids  shall  lead  her  as  with  the  voice  of  doves, 
tabouring  upon  their  breasts." 

2  Cyrano  writes  all  proper  names  by  musical  nota- 
tion, in  imitation  of  the  language  of  the  moon  as 
he  has  described  it. 

9 


130     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

said  I  interrupting  her,  "  have  the 
Princes  of  this  World,  then,  any  quar- 
rels amongst  themselves,  as  those  of 
ours  have?  Good  now,  let  me  know 
their  way  of  Fighting." 

"  When  the  Arbitrators,"  replied  she, 
"  who  are  freely  chosen  by  the  two  Par- 
ties, have  appointed  the  time  for  rais- 
ing Forces  for  their  March,  the  number 
of  Combatants,  the  day  and  place  of 
Battle,  and  all  with  so  great  equality, 
that  there  is  not  one  Man  more  in  one 
Army,  than  in  the  other:  All  the 
maimed  Soldiers  on  the  one  side,  are 
lifted  in  one  Company ;  and  when  they 
come  to  engage,  the  Mareshalls  de 
Camp  1  take  care  to  expose  them  to  the 
maimed  of  the  other  side :  The  Giants 
are  matched  with  Colosses,  the  Fencers 
with  those  that  can  handle  their  Weap- 
ons, the  Valiant  with  the  Stout,  the 
Weak  with  the  Infirm,  the  Sick  with 


1  Possibly  "  field  officers"  here;  in  exact  ranking, 
the  Marechal  de  Camp  stands  between  Colonel  and 
Lieutenant-General,  and  corresponds  to  Brigadier- 
General. 


Of  Making  War        131 

the  Indisposed,  the  Sturdy  with  the 
Strong ;  and  if  any  undertake  to  strike 
at  another  than  the  Enemy  he  is 
matched  with,  unless  he  can  make  it 
out  that  it  was  by  mistake,  he  is  Con- 
demned for  a  Coward.  When  the  Bat- 
tle is  over,  they  take  an  account  of  the 
Wounded,  the  Dead  and  the  Prisoners, 
for  Run-aways  they  have  none ;  and  if 
the  loss  be  equal  on  both  sides,  they 
draw  Cuts,  who  shall  be  Proclaimed 
Victorious. 

"  But  though  a  Kingdom  hath  de- 
feated the  Enemy  in  open  War,  yet 
there  is  hardly  any  thing  got  by  it ;  for 
there  are  other  smaller  Armies  of 
Learned  and  Witty  Men,  on  whose 
Disputations  the  Triumph  or  Servitude 
of  States  wholly  depends, 

"One  Learned  Man  grapples  with 
another,  one  Wit  with  another,  and  one 
Judicious  Man  with  another  Judicious 
Man :  Now  the  Triumph  which  a  State 
gains  in  this  manner  is  reckoned  as  good 
as  three  Victories  by  open  force.  After 
the  Proclamation  of  Victory,  the  Assem- 


132     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

bly  is  broken  up,  and  the  Victorious 
People  either  chuse  the  Enemies  King 
to  be  theirs,  or  confirm  their  own." 

I  could  not  forbear  to  Laugh  at  this 
scrupulous  way  of  giving  Battle ;  and 
for  an  Example  of  much  stronger  Poli- 
ticks, I  alledged  the  Customs  of  our 
Europe,  where  the  Monarch  would  be 
sure  not  to  let  slip  any  favourable  occa- 
sion of  gaining  the  day ;  but  mind  what 
she  said  as  to  that. 

"  Tell  me,  pray,  if  your  Princes  use 
not  a  pretext  of  Right,  when  they  levy 
Arms:"  "No  doubt,"  answered  I, 
"  and  of  the  Justice  of  their  Cause  too." 
"  Why  then,"  replied  she,  "  do  they  not 
chuse  Impartial  and  Unsuspected  Arbi- 
trators to  compose  their  Differences? 
And  if  it  be  found,  that  the  one  has  as 
much  Right  as  the  other,  let  things 
continue  as  they  were ;  or  let  them  play 
a  game  at  Picket,  for  the  Town  or  Prov- 
ince that's  in  dispute." 

"But  why  all  these  Circumstances," 
replied  I,  "in  your  way  of  Fighting? 
Is  it  not  enough,  that  both  Armies  are 


Of  Making  War         133 

equal  in  the  number  of  Men?  "  "  Your 
Judgment  is  Weak,"  answered  she. 
"  Would  you  think  in  Conscience,  that 
if  you  had  the  better  of  your  Enemy, 
Hand  to  Hand,  in  an  open  Field,  you 
had  fairly  overcome  him,  if  you  had 
had  on  a  Coat  of  Mail,  and  he  none ;  i£ 
he  had  had  but  a  Dagger,  and  you  a 
Tuck1;  and  in  a  Word,  if  he  had  had 
but  one  Arm,  and  you  both  yours? 
Nevertheless,  what  Equality  soever 
you  may  recommend  to  your  Gladia- 
tors, they  never  fight  on  even  terms; 
for  the  one  will  be  a  tall  Man,  and  the 
other  Short ;  the  one  skilful  at  his  weap- 
on, and  the  other  a  Man  that  never 
handled  a  Sword;  the  one  will  be 
strong,  and  the  other  Weak:  And 
though  these  Disproportions  were  not, 
but  that  the  one  were  as  skillful  and 
strong  as  the  other;  yet  still  they 
might  not  be  rightly  matched ;  for  one, 
perhaps,  may  have  more  Courage  than 
the  other,  who  being  rash  and  hot- 

1  Fencing  sword.     Cf.  Shakspere,  Hamlet: 
u  If  he  by  chance  escape  your  venomed  tuck.'* 


134    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

headed,  inconcerned  in  danger,  as  not 
foreseeing  it;  of  a  bilious  Temper,  a 
more  contracted  Heart,  with  all  the 
qualities  that  constitute  Courage,  (as  if 
that,  as  well  as  a  Sword,  were  not  a 
Weapon  which  his  Adversary  hath 
not :  )  He  makes  nothing  of  falling 
desperately  upon,  terrifying,  and  kill- 
ing this  poor  Man,  who  foresees  the 
danger;  who  has  his  Heat  choked  in 
Phlegme,  and  a  Heart  too  wide  to  close 
in  the  Spirits  in  such  a  posture  as  is 
necessary  for  thawing  that  Ice  which  is 
called  Cowardise.  And  now  you  praise 
that  Man,  for  having  killed  his  Enemy 
at  odds,  and  praising  him  for  his  Bold- 
ness you  praise  him  for  a  Sin  against 
nature ;  seeing  such  Boldness  tends  to 
its  destruction.  And  this  puts  me  in 
mind  to  tell  ye,  that  some  Years  ago 
application  was  made  to  the  Council  of 
War  for  a  more  circumspect  and  con- 
scientious Rule  to  be  made,  as  to  the 
way  of  Fighting.  The  Philosopher 
who  gave  the  advice,  if  I  mistake  it 
not,  spake  in  this  manner. 


Of  Making  War         135 

" '  You  imagine,  Gentlemen,  that  you 
have  very  equally  balanced  the  advan- 
tages of  two  Enemies,  when  you  have 
chosen  both  Tall  Men,  both  skillful, 
and  both  couragious:  But  that's  not 
enough,  seeing  after  all  the  Conquerour 
must  have  the  better  on't  either  through 
his  Skill,  Strength,  or  good  Fortune. 
If  it  be  by  Skill,  without  doubt  he  hath 
taken  his  Adversary  on  the  blind  side, 
which  he  did  not  expect ;  or  struck  him 
sooner  than  was  likely,  or  faining  to 
make  his  Pass  on  one  side,  he  hath  at- 
tacked him  on  the  other:  Neverthe- 
less all  this  is  Cunning,  Cheating,  and 
Treachery,  and  none  of  these  make  a 
brave  Man :  If  he  hath  triumphed  by 
Force,  would  you  judge  his  Enemy 
over-come,  because  he  hath  been  over- 
powered? No;  doubtless,  no  more 
than  you'll  say  that  a  Man  hath  lost 
the  Victory,  when,  over- whelm 'd  by  a 
Mountain,  it  was  not  in  his  power  to 
gain  it:  Even  so,  the  other  was  not 
overcome,  because  he  was  not  in  a  suit- 
able Disposition,  at  that  nick  of  time, 


136     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

to  resist  the  violences  of  his  Adversary. 
If  Chance  hath  given  him  the  better 
of  his  Enemy,  Fortune  ought  then  to 
be  Crowned,  since  he  hath  contributed 
nothing  to  it;  and,  in  fine,  the  van- 
quished is  no  more  to  be  blamed,  than 
he  who  at  Dice  having  thrown  Seven- 
teen, is  beat  by  another  that  throws 
three  Sixes/ 

"  They  confessed  he  was  in  the  right ; 
but  that  it  was  impossible,  according  to 
humane  Appearances,  to  remedy  it ;  and 
that  it  was  better  to  submit  to  a  small 
inconvenience,  than  to  open  a  door  to  a 
hundred  of  greater  Importance." 

She  entertained  me  no  longer  at  that 
time,  because  she  was  afraid  to  be 
found  alone  with  me  so  early ;  not  that 
Impudicity  is  a  Crime  in  that  Country : 
On  the  contrary,  except  Malefactors 
Convicted,  all  Men  have  power  over  all 
Women;  and  in  the  same  manner,  a 
Woman  may  bring  her  Action  against 
a  Man  for  refusing  her :  But  she  durst 
not  keep  me  company  publickly,  be- 
cause the  Members  of  Council,  at  their 


Moon  Not  the  Moon      137 

last  meeting,  had  said,  That  it  was 
chiefly  the  Women  who  gave  it  out  that 
I  was  a  Man ;  which  was  the  reason  that 
for  a  long  time  I  neither  saw  her,  nor 
any  other  of  her  Sex. 

In  the  mean  time,  some  must  needs 
have  revived  the  Disputes  about  the 
Definition  of  my  Being;  for  whilst  I 
was  thinking  of  nothing  else  but  of 
dying  in  my  Cage,  I  was  once  more 
brought  out  to  have  another  Audience. 
I  was  then  questioned,  in  presence  of  a 
great  many  Courtiers,  upon  some  points 
of  Natural  Philosophy;  and,  as  I  take 
it,  my  Answers  gave  some  kind  of  Sat- 
isfaction ;  for  the  President  declared  to 
me  at  large  his  thoughts  concerning  the 
structure  of  the  World.  They  seemed 
to  me  very  ingenious;  and  had  he  not 
traced  it  to  its  Original,1  which  he  main- 
tained to  be  Eternal,  I  should  have 
thought  his  Philosophy 2  more  rational 
than  our  own :  But  as  soon  as  I  heard 
him  maintain  a  Foppery2  so  contrary  to 

1  Cf.  P.  95,  n.  i. 

3  Folly,  foolishness,  ridiculous  belief.     Cf.  Shak- 


138     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

our  Faith,.  I  broke  with  him ;  at  which 
he  did  but  laugh ;  and  that  obliged  me 
to  tell  him,  That  since  they  were  there- 
abouts with  it,  I  began  again  to  think 
that  their  World  was  but  a  Moon. 

But  then  all  cried,  "  Don't  you  see 
here  Earth,  Rivers,  Seas?  what's  all 
that  then?"  "  No  matter,"  said  I, 
"Aristotle  assures  us  it  is  but  a  Moon; 
and  if  you  had  said  the  contrary  in  the 
Schools,  where  I  have  been  bred,  you 
would  have  been  hissed  at."  At  this 
they  all  burst  out  in  laughter;  you 
need  not  ask,  if  it  was  their  Ignor- 
ance that  made  them  do  so ;  for  in  the 
mean  time  I  was  carried  back  to  my 
Cage. 

But  some  more  passionate  Doctors, 
being  informed  that  I  had  the  boldness 
to  affirm,  That  the  Moon,  from  whence 
I  came,  was  a  World;  and  that  their 
World  was  no  more  but  a  Moon, 
thought  it  might  give  them  a  very  just 
pretext  to  have  me  condemned  to  the 

spere.  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor:  u.  .  .  drove  the 
grossness  ot  the  foppery  into  a  received  belief.*' 


Moon  Not  the   Moon      139 

Water,  for  that's  their  way  of  rooting 
out  Hereticks.  For  that  end,  they 
went  in  a  Body,  and  complained  to  the 
King,  who  promised  them  Justice ;  and 
order'd  me  once  more  to  be  brought  to 
the  Bar. 

Now  was  I  the  third  time  Un-caged; 
and  then  the  most  Ancient  spoke,  and 
pleaded  against  me.  I  do  not  well  re- 
member his  Speech ;  because  I  was  too 
much  frighted  to  receive  the  tones  of 
his  Voice  without  disorder;  and  be- 
cause also  in  declaiming,  he  made  use 
of  an  Instrument  which  stunn'd  me 
with  its  noise:  It  was  a  Speaking- 
Trumpet,  which  he  had  chosen  on  pur- 
pose that  by  its  Martial  Sound  he  might 
rouse  them  to  my  death ;  and  by  that 
Emotion  of  their  Spirits,  hinder  Rea- 
son from  performing  its  Office :  As  it 
happens  in  our  Armies,  where  the  noise 
of  Drums  and  Trumpets  hinders  the 
Souldiers  from  minding  the  importance 
of  their  Lives. 

When  he  had  done,  I  rose  up  to  de- 
fend my  Cause ;  but  I  was  excused  from 


140     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

it,  by  an  Accident  that  will  surprize 
you.  Just  as  I  had  opened  my  Mouth, 
a  Man,  who  with  much  ado  had  pressed 
through  the  Crowd,  fell  at  the  King's 
Feet,  and  a  long  while  rouled  himself 
upon  his  Back  in  his  presence.  This 
practice  did  not  at  all  surprize  me,  be- 
cause I  knew  it  to  be  the  posture  they 
put  themselves  into,  when  they  have  a 
mind  to  be  heard  in  publick :  I  only  stopt 
my  own  Harangue,  and  gave  Ear  to  his. 
"Just  Judges,"  said  he,  "listen  to 
me;  you  cannot  Condemn  that  Man, 
that  Monkey  or  Parrot,  for  saying, 
That  the  Moon  from  whence  he  comes 
is  a  World ;  for  if  he  be  a  Man,  though 
he  were  not  come  from  the  Moon,  since 
all  Men  are  free,  is  not  he  free  also  to 
imagine  what  he  pleases?  How  can 
you  constrain  him  not  to  have  Visions, 
as  well  as  you?  You  may  very  well 
force  him  to  say,  That  the  Moon  is  not 
a  World,  but  he  will  not  believe  it  for 
all  that ;  for  to  believe  a  thing,  some  pos- 
sibilities enclining  more  to  the  Yea  than 
to  the  Nay,  must  offer  to  ones  Imagina- 


Earth  Not  the  Earth     141 


tion  :  And  unless  you  furnish  him 
that  Probability,  or  his  own  mind  hit 
upon  it,  he  may  very  well  tell  you  that 
he  believes,  but  still  remain  an  Infidel.  l 

"  I  am  now  to  prove,  that  he  ought 
not  to  be  condemned  if  you  lift  him  in 
the  Catalogue  of  Beasts. 

"  For  suppose  him  to  be  an  Animal 
without  Reason,  would  it  be  rational  in 
you  to  Condemn  him  for  offending 
against  it?  He  hath  said,  that  the 
Moon  is  a  World.  Now  Beasts  act  only 
by  the  instinct  of  Nature  :  it  is  Nature 
then  that  says  so,  and  not  he  :  To  think 
that  wise  Nature,  who  hath  made  the 
World  and  the  Moon,  knows  not  her 
self  what  it  is  ;  and  that  ye  who  have 
no  more  Knowledge  but  what  ye  derive 
from  her,  should  more  certainly  know 
it,  would  be  ver^  Ridiculous.  But  if 
Passion  should  make  you  renounce 
your  Principles,  and  you  should  suppose 
that  Nature  does  not  guide  Beasts; 

1  Cf.  the  saying  attributed  to  Galileo  immediately 
after  his  public  recantation  (June  22,  1633):  "  E  pur 
si  muove  "  —  "  yet  it  does  move." 


142     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

blush,  at  least,  to  think  on't,  that  the 
Caprices  of  a  Beast  should  so  discom- 
pose you. 

"  Really,  Gentlemen,  should  you 
meet  with  a  Man  come  to  the  Years  of 
Discretion,  who  made  it  his  business  to 
inspect  the  Government  of  Pismires, 
giving  a  blow  to  one  that  had  over- 
thrown its  Companion,  imprisoning 
another  that  had  robb'd  its  Neighbour 
of  a  grain  of  Corn,  and  inditing  a  third 
for  leaving  its  Eggs;  would  you  not 
think  him  a  mad  Man,  to  be  employed 
in  things  so  far  below  him,  and  to  pre- 
tend to  give  Laws  to  Animals,  that 
never  had  Reason?  How  will  you  then, 
most  Venerable  Assembly,  justifie  your 
selves  for  being  so  concerned  at  the 
Caprices  of  that  little  Animal?  Just 
Judges,  I  have  no  more  to  say." 

When  he  had  made  an  end,  all  the 
Hall  rung  again  with  a  kind  of  Musical 
Applause;  and  after  all  the  Opinions 
had  been  canvased,  during  the  space 
of  a  large  quarter  of  an  hour,  the  King 
gave  Sentence: 


Earth  Not  the  Earth     i 


43 


That  for  the  future,  I  should  be  re- 
puted to  be  a  Man,  accordingly  set  at 
liberty,  and  that  the  Punishment  of 
being  Drowned,  should  be  converted 
into  a  publick  Disgrace  (the  most  hon- 
ourable way  of  satisfying  the  Law  in 
that  Country)  whereby  I  should  be 
obliged  to  retract  openly  what  I  had 
maintained  in  saying,  That  the  Moon 
was  a  World,  because  of  the  Scandal 
that  the  novelty  of  that  opinion  might 
give  to  weak  Brethren. 

This  Sentence  being  pronounced,  I 
was  taken  away  out  of  the  Palace,  richly 
Cloathed;  but  in  derision,  carried  in  a 
magnificent  Chariot,  as  on  a  Tribunal, 
which  four  Princes  in  Harness  drew; 
and  in  all  the  publick  places  of  the 
Town,  I  was  forced  to  make  this  Dec- 
laration : 

"  Good  People,  I  declare  to  you,  That 
this  Moon  here  is  not  a  Moon,  but  a 
World;  and  that  that  World  below  is 
not  a  World,  but  a  Moon:  This  the 
Council  thinks  fit  you  should  believe." 


CHAPTER  XII. 
Of  a  Philosophical  Entertainment. 

After  I  had  Proclaimed  this,  in  the 
five  great  places  of  the  Town,  my  Ad- 
vocate came  and  reached  me  his  Hand 
to  help  me  down.  I  was  in  great 
amaze,  when  after  I  had  Eyed  him  I 
found  him  to  be  my  Spirit ;  we  were  an 
hour  in  embracing  one  another :  "  Come 
lodge  with  me,"  said  he,  " for  if  you  re- 
turn to  Court,  after  a  Publick  Disgrace, 
you  will  not  be  well  lookt  upon :  Nay 
more,  I  must  tell  you,  that  you  would 
have  been  still  amongst  the  Apes  yon- 
der, as  well  as  the  Spaniard  your  Com- 
panion, if  I  had  not  in  all  Companies 
published  the  vigour  and  force  of  your 
Wit,  and  gained  from  your  Enemies 
the  protection  of  the  great  Men  in  your 
favours."  I  ceased  not  to  thank  him  all 
the  way,  till  we  came  to  his  Lodgings ; 


Philosophical  Entertainment  145 

there  he  entertained  me  till  Supper- 
time  with  all  the  Engines  he  had  set 
a  work  to  prevail  with  my  Enemies, 
notwithstanding  the  most  specious 
pretexts  they  had  used  for  riding  the 
Mobile,1  to  desist  from  so  unjust  a  Pros- 
ecution. But  as  they  came  to  acquaint 
us  t£tat  Supper  was  upon  the  Table,  he 
told  me  that  to  bear  me  company  that 
evening  he  had  invited  Two  Professors 
of  the  University  of  the  Town  to  Sup 
with  him:  "  I'll  make  them,"  said  he, 
"  fall  upon  the  Philosophy  which  they 
teach  in  this  World,  and  by  that  means 
you  shall  see  my  Landlord's  Son :  He's 
as  Witty  a  Youth  as  ever  I  met  with ; 
he  would  prove  another  Socrates,  if  he 
could  use  his  Parts  aright,  and  not 
bury  in  Vice  the  Graces  wherewith  God 
continually  visits  him,  by  affecting  a 
Libertinism,2  as  he  does,  out  of  a  Chi- 


1  The  people,  the  populace.     Cf.  pp.  74  and  168. 

2  " Libertinism"  in  seventeenth-century  English 
is  like  the   French   libertinage,   applied  rather  to 
licentiousness  of  opinion  than  of  practice ;  so  here 
it  means  rather  "  free  thought "  than  free  living. 

10 


146     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

merical  Ostentation  and  Affectation  of 
the  name  of  a  Wit.  I  have  taken 
Lodgings  here,  that  I  may  lay  hold  on 
all  Opportunities  of  Instructing  him:" 
He  said  no  more,  that  he  might  give  me 
the  Liberty  to  speak,  if  I  had  a  mind 
to  it ;  and  then  made  a  sign,  that  they 
should  strip  me  of  my  disgraceful 
Ornaments,  in  which  I  still  glistered. 

The  Two  Professors,  whom  we  ex- 
pected, entered  just  as  I  was  undrest, 
and  we  went  to  sit  down  to  Table, 
where  the  Cloth  was  laid,  and  where 
we  found  the  Youth  he  had  mentioned 
to  me,  fallen  to  already.  They  made 
him  a  low  Reverence,  and  treated  him 
with  as  rnuch  respect  as  a  Slave  does 
his  Lord.  I  asked  my  Spirit  the  reason 
of  that,  who  made  me  answer,  that  it 
was  because  of  his  Age ;  seeing  in  that 
World,  the  Aged  rendered  all  kind  of 
Respect  and  Difference '  to  the  Young ; 
and  which  is  far  more,  that  the  Parents 
obeyed  their  Children,  so  soon  as  by 
the  Judgment  of  the  Senate  of  Philos- 

1  Deference. 


Why  Parents  Obey  Children  1 47 

ophers  they  had  attained  to  the  Years 
of  Discretion.1 

"You  are  amazed,"  continued  he, 
"  at  a  Custom  so  contrary  to  that  of 
your  Country ;  but  it  is  not  all  repug- 
nant to  Reason :  For  say,  in  your  Con- 
science, when  a  brisk  young  Man  is  at 
his  Prime  in  Imagining,  Judging,  and 
Acting,  is  not  he  fitter  to  govern  a 
Family  than  a  Decrepit  piece  of  Three- 
score Years,  dull  and  doting,  whose 
Imagination  is  frozen  under  the  Snow 
of  Sixty  Winters,  who  follows  no  other 
Guide  but  what  you  call  the  Experience 
of  happy  Successes ;  which  yet  are  no 
more  but  the  bare  effects  of  Chance, 
against  all  the  Rules  and  Oeconomy  of 
humane  Prudence?  And  as  for  Judg- 
ment, he  hath  but  little  of  that  neither, 
though  the  people  of  your  World  make 
it  the  Portion  of  Old  Age :  But  to  un- 
deceive them,  they  must  know,  That 
that  which  is  called  Prudence  in  an  Old 
Man  is  no  more  but  a  panick  Appre- 
hension, and  a  mad  Fear  of  acting  any 

1  Cf.  Gulliver's  Voyage  to  Lilliput,  chap.  vi. 


148     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

thing  where  there  is  danger:  So  that 
when  he  does  not  run  a  Risk,  wherein 
a  Young  Man  hath  lost  himself ;  it  is 
not  that  he  foresaw  the  Catastrophe, 
but  because  he  had  not  Fire  enough  to 
kindle  those  noble  Flashes,  which  make 
us  dare:  Whereas  the  Boldness  of 
that  Young  Man  was  as  a  pledge  of 
the  good  Success  of  his  design ;  because 
the  same  Ardour  that  speeds  and  facil- 
itates the  execution,  thrust  him  upon 
the  undertaking. 

"As  for  Execution,  I  should  wrong 
your  Judgment  if  I  endeavoured  to 
convince  it  by  proofs :  You  know  that 
Youth  alone  is  proper  for  Action ;  and 
were  you  not  fully  perswaded  of  this, 
tell  me,  pray,  when  you  respect  a  Man 
of  Courage,  is  it  not  because  he  can  re- 
venge you  on  your  Enemies  or  Oppres- 
sors? And  does  any  thing,  but  meer 
Habit,  make  you  consider *  him,  when  a 
Battalion  of  Seventy  Januarys  hath  fro- 
zen his  Blood  and  chilled  all  the  noble 
Heats  that  youth  is  warmed  with? 

1  Respect. 


Why  Parents  Obey  Children    149 

When  you  yeild  to  the  Stronger,  is  it 
not  that  he  should  be  obliged  to  you  for 
a  Victory  which  you  cannot  Dispute 
him?  Why  then  should  you  submit  to 
him,  when  Laziness  hath  softened  his 
Muscles,  weakened  his  Arteries,  evapo- 
rated his  Spirits,  and  suckt  the  Marrow 
out  of  his  Bones?  If  you  adore  a 
Woman,  is  it  not  because  of  her  Beauty? 
Why  should  you  then  continue  your 
Cringes,  when  Old  Age  hath  made  her 
a  Ghost,  which  only  represents  a  hide- 
ous Picture  of  Death?  In  short,  when 
you  loved  a  Witty  Man,  it  was  because 
by  the  Quickness  of  his  Apprehension 
he  unravelled  an  intricate  Affair,  sea- 
soned the  choicest  Companies  with  his 
quaint  Sayings,  arid  sounded  the  depth 
of  Sciences  with  a  single  Thought ;  and 
do  you  still  honour  him,  when  his  worn 
Organs  disappoint  his  weak  Noddle, 
when  he  is  become  dull  and  uneasy  in 
Company,  and  when  he  looks  like  an 
aged  Fairy l  rather  than  a  rational  Man? 

i  Fr.,  Dieu  Foyer.    The  change  seems  to  be  an  in- 
teresting  embroidery    of    the    translator's    fancy, 


150     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

•"  Conclude  then  from  thence,  Son, 
that  it  is  fitter  Young  Men  should  gov- 
ern Families,  than  Old ;  and  the  rather, 
that  according  to  your  own  Principles, 
Hercules,  Achilles,  Epaminondas,  Alex- 
ander, and  Ccesar,  of  whom  most  part 
died  under  Fourty  Years  of  Age,  could 
have  merited  no  Honours,  as  being  too 
Young  in  your  account,  though  their 
Youth  was  the  only  cause  of  their  Fa- 
mous Actions ;  which  a  more  advanced 
Age  would  have  rendered  ineffectual, 
as  wanting  that  Heat  and  Promptitude 
that  rendered  them  so  highly  success- 
ful. But  you'll  tell  me,  that  all  the 
Laws  of  your  World  do  carefully  enjoin 
the  Respect  that  is  due  to  Old  Men: 
That's  true;  but  it  &  as  true  also,  that 
all  who  made  Laws  have  been  Old  Men, 
who  feared  that  Young  Men  might 
justly  have  dispossessed  them  of  the 
Authority  they  had  usurped. 

"You  owe  nothing  to  your  mortal 
Architector,  but  your  Body  only ;  your 

since  he  has  correctly   translated  the   words   as 
"Household  God"  on  p.  76. 


Why  Parents  Obey  Children  1 5 1 

Soul  comes  from  Heaven,  and  Chance 
might  have  made  your  Father  your 
Son,  as  now  you  are  his.  Nay,  are 
you  sure  he  hath  not  hindered  you  from 
Inheriting  a  Crown?  Your  Spirit  left 
Heaven,  perhaps  with  a  design  to  ani- 
mate the  King  of  the  Romans,  in  the 
Womb  of  the  Empress ;  it  casually  en- 
countered the  Embryo  of  you  by  the 
way,  and  it  ma)^  be  to  shorten  its  jour- 
ney, went  and  lodged  there:  No,  no, 
God  would  never  have  razed  your  name 
out  of  the  List  of  Mankind,  though 
your  Father  had  died  a  Child.  But 
who  knows,  whether  you  might  not 
have  been  at  this  day  the  work  of  some 
valiant  Captain,  that  would  have  asso- 
ciated you  to  his  Glory,  as  well  as  to 
his  Estate.  So  that,  perhaps,  you  are 
no  more  indebted  to  your  Father  -for 
the  life  he  hath  given  you,  than  you 
would  be  to  a  Pirate  who  had  put  you 
in  Chains,  because  he  feeds  you :  Nay, 
grant  he  had  begot  you  a  Prince,  or 
King;  a  Present  loses  its  merit,  when 
it  is  made  without  the  Option  of  him 


152     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

who  receives  it.  Cczsar  was  killed,  and 
so  was  Cqssius  too :  In  the  mean  time 
Cassius  was  obliged  to  the  Slave,  from 
whom  he  begg'd  his  Death,  but  so  was 
not  Ccesar  to  his  Murderers,  who  forced 
it  upon  him.  Did  your  Father  consult 
your  Will  and  Pleasure,  when  he  Em- 
braced your  Mother?  Did  he  ask  you, 
if  you  thought  fit  to  see  that  Age,  or  to 
wait  for  another ;  if  you  would  be  satis- 
fied to  be  the  Son  of  a  Sot,  or  if  you 
had  the  Ambition  to  spring  from  a 
Brave  Man?  Alas,  you  whom  alone  the 
business  concerned,  were  the  only  Per- 
son not  consulted  in  the  case.  May  be 
then,  had  you  been  shut  up  any  where 
else,  than  in  the  Womb  of  Nature's 
Ideas,  and  had  your  Birth  been  in  your 
own  Opinion,  you  would  have  said  to 
the  Parca,  my  dear  Lady,  take  another 
Spindle  in  your  Hand:  I  have  lain 
very  long  in  the  Bed  of  Nothing,  and  I 
had  rather  continue  an  Hundred  years 
still  without  a  Being,  than  to  Be  to  day, 
that  I  may  repent  of  it  to  morrow: 
However,  Be  you  must,  it  was  to  no 


Why  Parents  Obey  Children  153 

purpose  for  you  to  whimper  and  squall 
to  be  taken  back  again  to  the  long  and 
darksome  House  they  drew  you  out  of, 
they  made  as  if  they  believed  you 
cryed  for  the  Teat. 

"These  are  the  Reasons,  at  least 
some  of  them,  my  Son,  why  Parents 
bear  so  much  respect  to  their  Children : 
I  know  very  well  that  I  have  inclined 
to  the  Childrens  side  more  than  in  jus- 
tice I  ought;  and  that  in  favour  of 
them,  I  have  spoken  a  little  against  my 
Conscience.  But  since  I  was  willing 
to  repress  the  Pride  of  some  Parents, 
who  insult  over  the  weakness  of  their 
little  Ones ;  I  have  been  forced  to  do  as 
they  do  who  to  make  a  crooked  Tree 
streight  bend  it  to  the  contrary  side, 
that  betwixt  two  Conversions  it  may 
become  even:  Thus  I  have  made  Fa- 
thers restore  to  their  Children  what 
they  have  taken  from  them,  by  taking 
from  them  a  great  deal  that  belonged 
to  them ;  that  so  another  time  they  may 
be  content  with  their  own.  I  know 
very  well  also  that  by  this  Apology  I 


154     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

have  offended  all  Old  men :  But  let 
them  remember,  that  they  were  Chil- 
dren before  they  were  Fathers,  and 
Young  before  they  were  Old ;  and  that 
I  must  needs  have  spoken  a  great  deal 
to  their  advantage,  seeing  they  were 
not  found  in  a  Parsley-bed :  *  But,  in 
fine,  fall  back,  fall  edge,  though  my 
Enemies  draw  up  against  my  Friends, 
it  will  go  well  enough  still  with  me ;  for 
I  have  obliged  all  men,  and  only  dis- 
obliged but  one  half. " 

With  that  he  held  his  tongue,  and  our 
Landlord's  Son  spoke  in  this  manner: 
"Give  me  leave,"  said  he  to  him, 
"  since  by  your  care  I  am  informed  of  the 
Original,  History,  Customs,  and  Philos- 
ophy, of  the  World  of  this  little  Man ; 
to  add  something  to  what  you  have  said ; 
and  to  prove  that  Children  are  not 

i  Fr.,  "  sous  une  pomme  de  chou" — under  a  cab- 
bage-head; where,  as  too  curious  children  are  some- 
times told  in  France,  the  babies  are  found.  The 
English  expression  is  exactly  equivalent.  Cf. 
Locke:  "Sempronia  dug  Titus  out  of  the  parsley 
bed,  as  they  used  to  tell  children,  and  so  became 
his  mother." 


Why  Parents  Obey  Children  155 

obliged  to  Parents  for  their  Generation, 
because  their  Parents  were  obliged  in 
Conscience  to  procreate  them. 

"The  strictest  Philosophy  of  their 
World  acknowledges  that  it  is  better  to 
dye,  since  to  dye  one  must  have  lived, 
than  not  to  have  had  a  Being.  Now 
seeing,  by  not  giving  a  Being  to  that 
Nothing,  I  leave  it  in  a  state  worse 
than  Death,  I  am  more  guilty  in  not 
producing,  than  in  killing  it.  In  the 
mean  time,  my  little  Man,  thou  wouldst 
think  thou  hadst  committed  an  unpar- 
donable Parracide,  shouldst  thou  have 
cut  thy  Sons  throat :  It  would  indeed 
be  an  enormous  Crime,  but  it  is  far 
more  execrable,  not  to  give  a  Being  to 
that  which  is  capable  of  receiving  it: 
For  that  Child  whom  thou  deprivest  of 
life  for  ever,  hath  had  the  satisfaction 
of  having  enjoyed  it  for  some  time. 
Besides,  we  know  that  it  is  but  de- 
prived of  it,  but  for  some  ages;  but 
these  forty  poor  little  Nothings,  which 
thou  mightest  have  made  forty  good 
Souldiers  for  the  King,  thou  art  so  ma- 


156     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

licious  as  to  deny  them  Life,  and  lettest 
them  corrupt  in  thy  Reins,  to  the  danger 
of  an  Appoplexy,  which  will  stifle  thee. " 

This  Philosophy  did  not  at  all  please 
me,  which  made  me  three  or  four  times 
shake  my  head ;  but  our  Preceptor  held 
his  tongue,  because  Supper  was  mad  to 
be  gone. 

We  laid  our  selves  along,  then,  upon 
very  soft  Quilts,  covered  with  large 
Carpets ;  and  a  young  man  that  waited 
on  us,  taking  the  oldest  of  our  Philoso- 
phers, led  him  into  a  little  parlour 
apart,  where  my  Spirit  called  to  him  to 
come  back  to  us  as  soon  as  he  had 
supped. 

This  humour  of  eating  separately, 
gave  me  the  curiosity  of  asking  the 
Cause  of  it:  "He'll  not  relish,"  said 
he,  "the  steam  of  Meat,  nor  yet  of 
Herbs,  unless  they  die  of  themselves, 
because  he  thinks  they  are  sensible  of 
Pain."  "I  wonder  not  so  much,"  re- 
plied I,  "  that  he  abstains  from  Flesh, 
and  all  things  that  have  had  a  sensitive 
Life :  For  in  our  World  the  Pythago- 


The  Soul  of  Plants       157 

reans,  and  even  some  holy  Anchorites, 
have  followed  that  Rule;  but  not  to 
dare,  for  instance,  cut  a  Cabbage,  for 
fear  of  hurting  it;  that  seems  to  me 
altogether  ridiculous."  "And  for  my 
part,"  answered  my  Spirit,  "I  find  a 
great  deal  of  probability  in  his  Opinion. 

"  For  tell  me,  Is  not  that  Cabbage 
you  speak  of,  a  Being  existent  in  Na- 
ture, as  well  as  you?  Is  not  she  the 
common  Mother  of  you  both?  Yet  the 
Opinion  that  Nature  is  kinder  to  Man- 
kind, than  to  Cabbage-kind,  tickles  and 
makes  us  laugh :  But  seeing  she  is  in- 
capable of  Passion,  she  can  neither  love 
nor  hate  any  thing;  and  were  she  sus- 
ceptible of  Love,  she  would  rather  be- 
stow her  affection  upon  this  Cabbage, 
which  you  grant  cannot  offend  her, 
than  upon  that  Man  who  would  destroy 
her,  if  it  lay  in  his  power. 

"  And  moreover,  Man  cannot  be  born 
Innocent,  being  a  Part  of  the  first 
Offender:  But  we  know  very  well, 
that  the  first  Cabbage  did  not  offend  its 
Creator.  If  it  be  said,  that  we  are 


158     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

made  after  the  Image  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  and  so  is  not  the  Cabbage; 
grant  that  to  be  true ;  yet  by  polluting 
our  Soul,  wherein  we  resembled  Him, 
we  have  effaced  that  Likeness,  seeing 
nothing  is  more  contrary  to  God  than 
Sin.  If  then  our  Soul  be  no  longer  his 
Image,  we  resemble  him  no  more  in  our 
Feet,  Hands,  Mouth,  Forehead  and 
Ears,  than  a  Cabbage  in  its  Leaves, 
Flowers,  Stalk,  Pith,  and  Head:  Do 
not  you  really  think,  that  if  this  poor 
Plant  could  speak,  when  one  cuts  it, 
it  would  not  say,  '  Dear  Brother  Man, 
what  have  I  done  to  thee  that  deserves 
Death?  I  never  grow  but  in  Gardens, 
and  am  never  to  be  found  in  desart 
places,  where  I  might  live  in  Security: 
I  disdain  all  other  company  but  thine ; 
and  scarcely  am  I  sowed  in  thy  Garden, 
when  to  shew  thee  my  Good-will,  I 
blow,  stretch  out  my  Arms  to  thee; 
offer  thee  my  Children  in  Grain ;  and  as 
a  requital  for  my  civility,  thou  causest 
my  Head  to  be  chopt  off. '  Thus  would 
a  Cabbage  discourse,  if  it  could  speak. 


Cabbages  159 

"Well,  and  because  it  cannot  com- 
plain, ma)r  we  therefore  justly  do  it  all 
the  Wrong  which  it  cannot  hinder?  If 
I  find  a  Wretch  bound  Hand  and  Foot, 
may  I  lawfully  kill  him,  because  he 
cannot  defend  himself?  so  far  from 
that,  that  his  Weakness  would  aggra- 
vate my  Cruelty.  And  though  this 
wretched  Creature  be  poor,  and  desti- 
tute of  all  the  advantages  which  we 
have,  yet  it  deserves  not  Death;  and 
when  of  all  the  Benefits  of  a  Being  it 
hath  only  that  of  Encrease,  we  ought 
not  cruelly  to  snatch  that  away  from  it. 
To  massacre  a  Man,  is  not  so  great  Sin, 
as  to  cut  and  kill  a  Cabbage,  because 
one  day  the  Man  will  rise  again,  but  the 
Cabbage  has  no  other  Life  to  hope  for : 
By  putting  to  death  a  Cabbage,  you  an- 
nihilate it;  but  in  killing  a  Man,  you 
make  him  only  change  his  Habitations 
Nay,  I'll  go  farther  with  you  still: 
since  God  doth  equally  cherish  all  his 
Works,  and  hath  equally  divided  the 
Benefits  betwixt  Us  and  Plants,  it  is 
but  just  we  should  have  an  equal  Es- 


160     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

teem  for  Them  as  for  our  Selves.  It  is 
true  we  were  born  first,  but  in  the 
Family  of  God  there  is  no  Birth-right. 
If  then  the  Cabbage  share  not  with  us 
in  the  inheritance  of  Immortality,  with- 
out doubt  that  Want  was  made  up  by 
some  other  Advantage,  that  may  make 
amends  for  the  shortness  of  its  Being; 
may  be  by  an  universal  Intellect,  or  a 
perfect  Knowledge  of  all  things  in  their 
Causes;  and  it's  for  that  Reason,  that 
the  wise  Mover  of  all  things  hath  not 
shaped  for  it  Organs  like  ours,  which 
are  proper  only  for  a  simple  Reasoning, 
not  only  weak,  but  many  times  falla- 
cious too ;  but  others,  more  ingeniously 
framed,  stronger,  and  more  numerous, 
which  serve  to  manage  its  Speculative 
Exercises.  You'll  ask  me,  perhaps, 
when  ever  any  Cabbage  imparted  those 
lofty  Conceptions  to  us?  But  tell  me, 
again,  who  ever  discovered  to  us  cer- 
tain Beings,  which  we  allow  to  be  above 
us ;  to  whom  we  bear  no  Analogy  nor 
Proportion,  and  whose  Existence  it  is 
as  hard  for  us  to  comprehend,  as  the 


Cabbages  1 6 1 

Understanding  and  Ways  whereby  a 
Cabbage  expresses  its  self  to  its  like, 
though  not  to  us,  because  our  senses 
are  too  dull  to  penetrate  so  far. 

"  Moses,  the  greatest  of  Philosophers, 
who  drew  the  Knowledge  of  Nature 
from  the  Fountain-Head,  Nature  her 
self,  hinted  this  truth  to  us  when  he 
spoke  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge ;  and 
without  doubt  he  intended  to  intimate 
to  us  under  that  Figure,  that  Plants,  in 
Exclusion  to  Mankind,  possess  perfect 
Philosophy.  Remember,  then,  O  thou 
Proudest  of  Animals!  that  though  a 
Cabbage  which  thou  cuttest  sayeth  not 
a  Word,  yet  it  pays  it  at  Thinking ;  but 
the  poor  Vegetable  has  no  fit  Organs 
to  howl  as  you  do,  nor  yet  to  frisk 
it  about,  and  weep :  Yet,  it  hath  those 
that  are  proper  to  complain  of  the 
Wrong  you  do  it,  and  to  draw  a  Judge- 
ment from  Heaven  upon  you  for  the 
Injustice.  But  if  you  still  demand  of 
me,  how  I  come  to  know  that  Cabbage 
and  Coleworts  conceive  such  pretty 
Thoughts?  Then  will  I  ask  you,  how 


1 62     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

come  you  to  know  that  they  do  not; 
and  that  some  amongst  them,  when 
they  shut  up  at  Night,  may  not  Com- 
pliment one  another  as  you  do,  saying: 
Good  Night,  Master  Cole-Curled-Pate  ; 
your  most  humble  Servant,  good  Mas- 
ter Cabbage-Round-Head. '.' 

So  far  was  he  gone  on  in  his  Dis- 
course, when  the  young  Lad,  who  had 
led  out  our  Philosopher,  led  him  in 
again ;  "  What,  Supped  already?  "  cryed 
my  Spirit  to  him.  He  answered,  yes, 
almost:  The  Physiognomist  having 
permitted  him  to  take  a  little  more  with 
us.  Our  young  Landlord  stayed  not 
till  I  should  ask  him  the  meaning  of 
that  Mystery;  "I  perceive,"  said  he, 
"you  wonder  at  this  way  of  Living; 
know  then,  that  in  your  World,  the 
Government  of  Health  is  too  much 
neglected,  and  that  our  Method  is  not 
to  be  despised. 

"  In  all  Houses  there  is  a  Physiogno- 
mist entertained  by  the  Publick,1  who 
in  some  manner  resembles  your  Physi- 
>  Supported  by  the  State.  Cf.  p.  34,  n.  z. 


Tne  Physiognomist       163 

cians,  save  that  he  only  prescribes  to 
the  Healthful,  and  judges  of  the  differ- 
ent manners  how  we  are  to  be  Treated 
only  according  to  the  Proportion,  Fig- 
ure, and  Symetry  of  our  Members ;  by 
the  Features  of  the  Face,  the  Complex- 
ion, the  Softness  of  the  Skin,  the  Agil- 
ity of  the  Body,  the  Sound  of  the 
Voice,  and  the  Colour,  Strength,  and 
Hardness  of  the  Hair.  Did  not  you 
just  now  mind  a  Man,  of  a  pretty  low 
Stature,  who  ey'd  you;  he  was  the 
Physiognomist  of  the  House :  Assure 
your  self,  that  according  as  he  observed 
your  Constitution,  he  hath  diversified 
the  Exhalation  of  your  Supper :  Mark 
the  Quilt  on  which  you  lie,  how  distant 
it  is  from  our  Couches ;  without  doubt, 
he  judges  your  Constitution  to  be  far 
different  from  ours;  since  he  feared 
that  the  Odour  which  evaporates  from 
those  little  Pipkins  that  stand  under  our 
Noses,  might  reach  you,  or  that  yours 
might  steam  to  us;  at  Night,  you'll 
see  him  chuse  the  Flowers  for  your 
Bed  with  the  same  Circumspection. " 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Of  the  little  Animals  that  make  up  our 
Life,  and  likewise  cause  our  Diseases  ; 
and  of  the  Disposition  of  the  Towns  in 
the  Moon. 

During  all  this  Discourse,  I  made 
Signs  to  my  Landlord,  that  he  would 
try  if  he  could  oblige  the  Philosophers 
to  fall  upon  some  head  of  the  Science 
which  they  professed.  He  was  too 
much  my  Friend,  not  to  start  an  Occa- 
sion upon  the  Spot :  But  not  to  trouble 
the  Reader  with  the  Discourse  and 
Entreaties  that  were  previous  to  the 
Treaty,  wherein  Jest  and  Earnest  were 
so  wittily  interwoven,  that  it  can  hardly 
be  imitated;  I'll  only  tell  you  that  the 
Doctor,  who  came  last,  after  many 
things,  spake  as  follows: 

"  It  remains  to  be  proved,  that  there 
are  infinite  Worlds,  in  an  infinite 


Of  Little  Animals       165 

World:  Fancy  to  your  self  then  the 
Universe  as  a  great  Animal ;  and  that 
the  Stars,  which  are  Worlds,  are  in  this 
great  Animal,  as  other  great  Animals 
that  serve  reciprocally  for  Worlds  to 
other  Peoples ;  such  as  we,  our  Horses, 
&c.  That  we  in  our  turns,  are  like- 
wise Worlds  to  certain  other  Animals, 
incomparably  less  than  our  selves,  such 
as  Nits,  Lice,  Hand-worms,  &c.  And 
that  these  are  an  Earth  to  others,  more 
imperceptible  ones ;  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  every  one  of  us  appears  to  be  a 
great  World  to  these  little  People. 
Perhaps  our  Flesh,  Blood,  and  Spirits, 
are  nothing  else  but  a  Contexture  of 
little  Animals  J  that  correspond,  lend  us 
Motion  from  theirs,  and  blindly  suffer 
themselves  to  be  guided  by  our  Willr 
which  is  their  Coachman ;  or  otherwise 
conduct  us,  and  all  Conspiring  together, 
produce  that  Action  which  we  call  Life, 
"  For  tell  me,  pray,  is  it  a  hard  thing 
to  be  believed,  that  a  Louse  takes  your 

i  This  and  the  following  paragraphs  appear  to  be 
an  anticipation  of  the  microbe  theory. 


1 66     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Body  for  a  World ;  and  that  when  any 
one  of  them  travels  from  one  of  your 
Ears  to  the  other,  his  Companions  say, 
that  he  hath  travelled  the  Earth  from 
end  to  end,  or  that  he  hath  run  from 
one  Pole  to  the  other?  Yes,  without 
doubt,  those  little  People  take  your 
Hair  for  the  Forests  of  their  Country ; 
the  Pores  full  of  Liquor,  for  Fountains ; 
Buboes  and  Pimples,  for  Lakes  and 
Ponds ;  Boils,  for  Seas ;  and  Defluxions, 
for  Deluges:  And  when  you  Comb 
your  self,  forwards,  and  backwards, 
they  take  that  Agitation  for  the  Flow- 
ing and  Ebbing  of  the  Ocean.  Doth 
not  Itching  make  good  what  I  say? 
What  is  the  little  Worm  that  causes  it 
but  one  of  these  little  Animals,  which 
hath  broken  off  from  civil  Society,  that 
it  may  set  up  for  a  Tyrant  in  its  Coun- 
try? If  you  ask  me,  why  are  they  big- 
ger than  other  imperceptible  Crea- 
tures? I  ask  you,  why  are  Elephants 
bigger  than  we?  And  the  Irish-men, 
than  Spaniards? 

"As    to    the    Blisters,    and    Scurff, 


Of  Little  Animals       167 

which  you  know  not  the  Cause  of ;  they 
must  either  happen  by  the  Corruption 
of  their  Enemies,  which  these  little 
Blades  have  killed,  or  which  the  Plague 
has  caused  by  the  scarcity  of  Food,  for 
which  the  Seditious  worried  one  anoth- 
er/ and  left  Mountains  of  Dead  Car- 
cases rotting  in  the  Field ;  or  because 
the  Tyrant,  having  driven  away  on  all 
Hands  his  Companions,  who  by  their 
Bodies  stopt  up  the  Pores  of  ours, 
hath  made  way  out  for  the  waterish 
matter,  which  being  extravasted  out 
of  the  Sphere  of  the  Circulation  of 
our  Blood,  is  corrupted.  It  may  be 
asked,  perhaps,  why  a  Nit,  or  Hand- 
worm,  produces  so  many  disorders: 
But  that's  easily  conceived,  for  as  one 
Revolt  begets  another,  so  these  little 
People,  egg'd  on  by  the  bad  Example 
of  their  Seditious  Companions,  aspire 
severally  to  Sovereign  Command ;  and 
occasion  every  where  War,  Slaughter, 
and  Famine. 

1  Fr.,  "dont  les  Seditieux  se  sont  gorges ''—with 
which  the  rebels  have  filled  their  bellies. 


1 68     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

"  But  you'll  say,  some  are  far  less 
subject  to  Itching  than  others;  and, 
nevertheless,  all  are  equally  inhabited 
by  these  little  Animals,  since  }rou  say 
they  are  the  Cause  of  our  Life.  That's 
true ;  for  we  observe,  that  Phlegmatick 
People  are  not  so  much  given  to 
scratching  as  the  Cholerick;  because 
the  People  sympathizing  with  the  Cli- 
mate they  inhabit,  are  slower  in  a  cold 
Body,  than  those  others  that  are  heated 
by  the  temper  of  their  Region,  who  frisk 
and  stir,  and  cannot  rest  in  a  place: 
Thus  a  Cholerick  Man  is  more  delicate 
than  a  Phlegmatick ;  because  being  ani- 
mated in  many  more  Parts,  and  the  Soul 
being  the  Action  of  these  little  Beasts, 
he  is  capable  of  Feeling  in  all  places 
where  these  Cattle  stir.  Whereas  the 
Phlegmatick  Man,  wanting  sufficient 
Heat  to  put  that  stirring  Mobile  in 
Action,  is  sensible  but  in  a  few  places. 

"  To  prove  more  plainly  that  univer- 
sal Vermicular ity^  you  need  but  consid- 
er, when  you  are  wounded,  how  the 
Blooel  runs  to  the  Sore :  Your  Doctors 


Of  Little  Animals       169 

say  that  it  is  guided  by  provident  Na- 
ture, who  would  succour  the  parts  de- 
bilitated; which  might  make  us  con- 
clude, that,  besides  the  Soul  and  Mind, 
there  were  a  third  intellectual  Sub- 
stance, that  had  distinct  Organs  and 
Functions :  And  therefore,  it  seems  to 
me  far  more  Rational  to  say,  That 
these  little  Animals  finding  themselves 
attacked  send  to  demand  Assistance 
from  their  Neighbours,  and  thus,  Re- 
cruits flocking  in  from  all  Parts  and  the 
Country  being  too  little  to  contain  so 
many,  they  either  die  of  Hunger  or  We 
stifled  in  the  Press.  That  Mortality 
happens  when  the  Boil  is  ripe ;  for  as 
an  Argument  that  these  Animals  at 
that  time  are  stifled,  the  Flesh  becomes 
insensible :  Now,  if  Blood  -  letting, 
which  is  many  times  ordered  to  divert 
the  Fluxion,  do  any  good,  it  is  because, 
much  being  lost  by  the  Orifice  which 
these  little  Animals  laboured  to  stop, 
they  refuse  their  Allies  Assistance, 
having  no  more  Forces  than  is  enough 
to  defend  themselves  at  home." 


1 70     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Thus  he  concluded,  and  when  the 
second  Philosopher  perceived  by  all 
our  Looks  that  we  longed  to  hear  him 
speak  in  his  turn : 

"Men,"  said  he,  "  seeing  you  are 
curious  to  instruct  this  little  Animal, 
(our  like),  in  somewhat  of  the  Science 
which  we  profess,  I  am  now  dictating  a 
Treatise  which  I  wish  he  might  see, 
because  of  the  Light  it  gives  to  the 
Understanding  of  our  Natural  Philoso- 
phy ;  it  is  an  Explication  of  the  Origi- 
nal *  of  the  World :  But  seeing  I  am  in 
haste  to  set  my  Bellows  at  work,  (for 
to  Morrow,  without  delay,  the  Town 
departs ; )  I  hope  you'll  excuse  my  want 
of  time,  and  I  promise  to  satisfie  you  as 
soon  as  the  Town  is  arrived  at  the  place 
whither  it  is  to  go." 

At  these  words,  the  Landlord's  Son 
called  his  Father,  to  know  what  it  was 
a  Clock?  who  having  answered  him, 
that  it  was  past  Eight,  he  asked  him  in 
a  great  Rage,  Why  he  did  not  give  him 
notice  at  Seven,  according  as  he  had 

iC/.  p.  95,  n.  i. 


Towns  in  the  Moon      171 

commanded  him;  that  he  knew  well 
enough  the  Houses  were  to  be  gone  to 
Morrow ;  and  that  the  City  Walls  were 
already  upon  their  Journey?  "Son," 
replyed  the  good  Man,  "  since  you  sate 
down  to  Table,  there  is  an  Order  pub- 
lished, That  no  House  shall  budg  be- 
fore next  day:  "  "  That's  all  one,"  an- 
swered the  young  Man;  "you  ought 
blindly  to  obey,  not  to  examine  my 
Orders,  and  only  remember  what  I  com- 
manded you.  Quick,  go  fetch  me  your 
Effigies:  "  So  soon  as  it  was  brought, 
he  took  hold  on't  by  the  Arm,  and 
Whipt  it  a  whole  quarter  of  an  Hour: 
"  Away  you  ne'er  be  good,"  continued 
he ;  "  as  a  Punishment  for  your  disobe- 
dience, it's  my  Will  and  Pleasure,  that 
this  day  you  serve  for  a  Laughing-stock 
to  all  People ;  and  therefore  I  command 
you,  not  to  walk  but  upon  two  Legs, 
till  Night."  The  Poor  Man  went  out 
in  a  very  mournful  Condition,  and  the 
Young  man  excused  to  us  his  Passion. 

I   had  much  ado,    though  I   bit  my 
Lip,  to  forbear  Laughing  at  so  pleasant 


172     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

a  Punishment;  and  therefore  to  take 
me  off  of  this  odd  piece  of  Pedantick 
Discipline,  which,  without  doubt,  would 
have  made,  me  burst  out  at  last;  I 
prayed  my  Philosopher  to  tell  me  what 
he  meant  by  that  Journey  of  the  Town 
he  talked  of,  and  if  the  Houses  and 
Walls  Travelled? 

"  Dear  Stranger,"  answered  he,  "we 
have  some  Ambulatory  Towns,  and 
some  Sedentary;  the  Ambulatory,  as 
for  instance  this  wherein  now  we  are, 
are  Built  in  this  manner :  The  Archi- 
tector,  as  you  see,  builds  every  Palace 
of  a  very  light  sort  of  Timber;  sup- 
ported by  four  Wheels  underneath ;  in 
the  thickness  of  one  of  the  Walls  he 
places  ten  large  pair  of  Bellows,  whose 
Snouts  pass  in  a  Horizontal  Line 
through  the  upper  Story,  from  one 
Pinacle  to  the  other;  so  that  when 
Towns  are  to  be  removed  from  one 
place  to  another,  (for  according  to  the 
Seasons  they  change  the  Air)  every 
one  spreads  a  great  many  Sails  upon 
one  side  of  the  House,  before  the  Noses 


Towns  in  the  Moon      173 

of  the  Bellows ;  then  having  wound  up 
a  Spring1  to  make  them  play,  in  less 
than  Eight  days  time  their  Houses,  by 
the  continual  Puffs  which  these  Windy 
Monsters  blow,  are  driven,  if  one 
pleases,  an  Hundred  Leagues  and 
more. 

"  For  those  which  we  call  Sedentary, 
they  are  almost  like  to  your  Towers ; 
save  that  they  are  of  Timber,  and  that 
they  have  a  Great  and  Strong  Skrew 
or  Vice  in  the  Middle,  reaching  from 
the  top  to  the  Bottom;  whereby  they 
may  be  hoisted  up  or  let  down  as  Peo- 
ple please.  Now  the  Ground  under 
neath  is  dugg  as  deep  as  the  House  is 
high ;  and  it  is  so  ordered,  that  so  soon 
as  the  Frosts  begin  to  chill  the  Air, 
they  may  sink  their  Houses  down  un- 
der Ground,  where  they  keep  them- 
selves secure  from  the  Severity  of  the 
Weather:  But  as  soon  as  the  gentle 
Breathings  of  the  Spring  begin  to  soft- 
en and  qualifie  the  Air;  they  raise 
them  above  Ground  again,  by  means 
of  the  great  Skrew  I  told  you  of. " 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Of  the  Original  of  All  Things ;  oj 
Atomes ;  and  of  the  Operation  of  the 
Senses. 

I  prayed  him,  since  he  had  shew'd 
so  much  goodness,  and  that  the  Town 
was  not  to  part 1  till  next  day,  that  he 
would  tell  me  somewhat  of  that  Origi- 
nal of  the  World,  which  he  had  men- 
tioned not  long  before ;  "  and  I  prom- 
ise you,"  said  I,  "that  in  requital,  so 
soon  as  I  am  got  back  to  the  Moon, 
from  whence  my  Governour  (pointing 
to  my  Spirit)  will  tell  you  that  I  am 
come,  I'll  spread  your  Renown  there, 

1  Part  and  depart  were  interchangeable  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Cf.  Shakspere,  Two  Gentle- 
men of  Verona  : 

"  But  now  he  parted  hence  "; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  King  John  : 

"Hath  willingly  departed  with  a  part"  (=  given 
up  a  part). 


Original  of  all  Things     175 

by  relating  the  rare  things  you  shall 
tell  me :  I  perceive  you  Laugh  at  that 
promise,  because  you  do  not  believe 
that  the  Moon  I  speak  of  is  a  World, 
and  that  I  am  an  Inhabitant  of  it ;  but 
I  can  assure  you  also,  that  the  People 
of  that  World,  who  take  this  only  for 
a  Moon,  will  Laugh  at  me  'when  I  tell 
them  that  your  Moon  is  a  World,  and 
that  there  are  Fields  and  Inhabitants 
in  it :  " 

He  answered  only  with  a  smile,  and 
spake  in  this  manner: 

"  Since  in  Ascending  to  the  Original 
of  this  Great  A  L  L,  we  are  forced  to 
run  into  three  or  four  Absurdities ;  it 
is  but  reasonable  we  should  follow  the 
way  wherein  we  may  be  least  apt  to 
stumble.  I  say  then,  that  the  first  Ob- 
stacle that  stops  us  short  is  the  Eternity 
of  the  World;  and  the  minds  of  men, 
not  being  able  enough  to  conceive  it, 
and  being  no  more  able  to  imagine, 
that  this  great  Universe,  so  lovely  and 
so  well  ordered,  could  have  made  it 
self,  they  have  had  their  recourse  to 


176     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Creation :  But  like  to  him  that  would 
leap  into  a  River  for  fear  of  being"  wet 
with  Rain,  they  save  themselves  out  of 
the  Clutches  of  a  Dwarf,  by  running 
into  the  Arms  of  a  Giant ;  and  yet  they 
are  not  safe  for  all  that:  For  that 
Eternity  which  they  deny  the  World, 
because  they  cannot  comprehend  it, 
they  attribute  it  to  God,  as  if  he  stood 
in  need  of  that  Present,  and  as  if  it 
were  easier  to  imagine  it  in  the  one 
than  in  the  other;  for  tell  me,  pray, 
was  it  ever  yet  conceived  in  Nature, 
how  Something  can  be  made  of  Noth- 
ing? Alas!  Betwixt  Nothing  and  an 
Atome  only,  there  are  such  infinite 
Disproportions,  that  the  sharpest  Wit 
could  never  dive  into  them ;  therefore 
to  get  out  of  this  inextricable  Laby- 
rinth, you  must  admit  of  a  Matter 
Eternal  with  God:  But  you'l  say  to 
me,  grant  I  should  allow  you  that  Eter- 
nal Matter ;  how  could  that  Chaos  dis- 
pose and  order  it  self?  That's  the 
thing  I  am  about  to  explain  to  you. 
"  My  little  Animal,  after  you  have 


Of  Atomes 


177 


mentally  divided  every  little  Visible 
Body,  into  an  infinite  many  little 
invisible  Bodies;  you  must  imagine, 
That  the  infinite  Universe  consists  only 
of  these  Atomes,  which  are  most  solid, 
most  incorruptible,  and  most  simple; 
whose  Figures  are  partly  Cubical, 
partly  Parallelograms,  partly  Angular, 
partly  Round,  partly  Sharp-pointed, 
partly  Pyramidal,  partly  Six-cornered, 
and  partly  Oval;  which  act  all  sever- 
ally, according  to  their  Various  Fig- 
ures :  And  to  shew  that  it  is  so,  put  a 
very  round  Ivory  Bowl  upon  a  very 
smooth  place,  and  with  the  least  touch 
you  give  it  will  be  half  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  before  it  rest :  Now  I  say,  that  if 
it  were  perfectly  round,  as  some  of  the 
Atomes  I  speak  of  are,  and  the  Surface 
on  which  it  is  put  perfectly  smooth,  it 
would  never  rest.  If  Art  then  be  capa- 
ble of  inclining  a  Body  to  a  perpetual 
Motion,  why  may  we  not  believe  that 
Nature  can  do  it?  It's  the  same  with 
the  other  Figures,  of  which  the  Square 
requires  a  perpetual  Rest,  others  an 

12 


178     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

oblique  Motion,  others  a  half  Motion, 
as  Trepidation ;  and  the  Round,  whose 
Nature  is  to  move,  joyning  a  Pyra- 
midal, makes  that,  perhaps,  which  we 
call  Fire ;  because  not  only  Fire  is  in 
continual  Agitation,  but  also  because 
it  easily  penetrates:  Besides,  the  Fire 
hath  different  effects,  according  to  the 
openings  and  quality  of  the  Angles, 
when  the  round  Figure  is  joyned;  for 
Example,  The  Fire  of  Pepper  is  anoth- 
er thing  than  the  Fire  of  Sugar,  the 
Fire  of  Sugar  differs  from  that  of  Cin- 
namon; that  of  Cinnamon,  from  that 
of  the  Clove ;  and  this  from  the  Fire  of 
a  Faggot.  Now  the  Fire,  which  is  the 
Architect  of  the  parts  and  whole  of  the 
Universe,  hath  driven  together,  and 
Congregated  into  an  Oak,  the  quantity 
of  Figures  which  are  necessary  for  the 
Composition  of  that  Oak. 

"  But  you'll  say,  how  could  Hazard 
congregate  into  one  place  all  the  Fig- 
ures that  are  necessary  for  the  produc- 
tion of  that  Oak?  I  answer,  That  it  is 
no  wonder  that  Matter  so  disposed 


Of  Atomes  179 

should  form  an  Oak,  but  the  wonder 
would  have  been  greater,  if  the  Matter 
being  so  disposed  the  Oak  had  not  been 
produced ;  had  there  been  a  few  less  of 
some  Figures,  it  would  have  been  an 
Elm,  a  Poplar,  a  Willow ;  and  fewer  of 
'em  still,  it  would  have  been  the  Sensi- 
tive Plant,  an  Oyster,  a  Worm,  a  Flie, 
a  Frog,  a  Sparrow,  an  Ape,  a  Man.  If 
three  Dice  being  flung  upon  a  Table, 
there  happen  a  Raffle  of  two,  or  all ; J  a 
three,  a  four,  and  a  five ;  or  two  sixes, 
and  a  third  in  the  bottom ; 3  would  you 
say,  O  strange!  that  each  Die  should 
turn  up  such  a  chance,  when  there  were 
so  many  others.  A  Sequence  of  three 
hath  happened,  O  strange !  Two  sixes 
turned  up,  and  the  bottom  of  the  third, 
O  strange !  I  am  sure  that  being  a  man 
of  Sense,  you'l  never  make  such  Ex- 
clamations ;  for  since  there  is  but  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  Numbers  upon  the 
Dice,  it's  impossible  but  some  of  them 
must  turn  up;  and  you  wonder,  after 

1  Two  alike,  or  all  three  alike. 
8  Two  sixes  and  a  one. 


180     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

that,  how  matter  shuffled  together  Pell- 
Mell,  as  Chance  pleases,  should  make 
a  Man,  seeing  so  many  things  were 
necessary  for  the  Construction  of  his 
Being.  You  know  not  then,  that  this 
Matter  tending  to  the  Fabrick  of  a  Man 
hath  been  a  Million  of  times  stopt  in 
it's  Progress  for  forming  sometimes 
a  Stone,  sometimes  Lead,  sometimes 
Coral,  sometimes  Flower,  sometimes  a 
Comet ;  and  all  because  of  more  or  less 
Figures,  that  were  required  for  the 
framing  of  a  Man :  So  that  it  is  no 
greater  wonder,  if  amongst  infinite 
Matters,  which  incessantly  change  and 
stir,  some  have  hit  upon  the  construc- 
tion of  the  few  Animals,  Vegetables, 
and  Minerals  which  we  see,  than  if  in  a 
Hundred  Casts  of  the  Dice,  one  should 
throw  a  Raffle :  Nay,  indeed,  it  is  im- 
possible, that  in  this  hurling  of  things, 
nothing  should  be  produced;  and  yet 
this  will  be  always  admired  '  by  a  Block- 
head, who  little  knows  how  small  a 
matter  would  have  made  it  to  have 

<  Wondered  at. 


Of  Atomes  18 1 

been  otherwise.     When  the  great  River 

makes  a  Mill  to  Grind, 
or  guides   the  Wheels  of  a  Clock,  and 


the  Brook  of         Ji    •  -     only     runs, 


and  sometimes  absconds,  you  will  not 
say  that  that  River  hath  a  great  deal  of 
Wit,  because  you  know  that  it  hath  met 
with  things  disposed  for  producing  such 
rare  Feats ;  for  had  not  the  Mill  stood  in 
the  way,  it  would  not  have  ground  the 
Corn;  had  it  not  met  the  Clock,  it 
would  not  have  marked  the  Hours: 
and  if  the  little  Rivulet  I  speak  of  had 
met  with  the  same  Opportunities,  it 
would  have  wrought  the  very  same 
Miracles.  Just  so  it  is  with  the  Fire 
that  moves  of  it  self;  for  finding  Or- 
gans fit  for  the  Act  of  Reasoning,  it 
Reasons ;  when  it  finds  only  such  as  are 
proper  for  Sensation,  it  Sensates ;  and 
when  such  as  are  fit  for  Vegetation,  it 
Vegetates.  And  to  prove  it  is  so,  put 


1 82     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

out  but  the  Eyes  of  a  Man,  the  Fire  of 
whose  Soul  makes  him  to  see,  and  he 
will  cease  to  see;  just  as  our  great 
Clock  will  leave  off  to  make  the  Hours, 
if  the  Movements  of  it  be  broken. 

"  In  fine,  these  Primary  and  indivisi- 
ble Atomes  make  a  Circle,  whereon 
without  difficulty  move  the  most  pre- 
plexed  Difficulties  of  Natural  Philoso- 
phy; not  so  much  as  even  the  very 
Operation  of  the  Senses,  which  no  Body 
hitherto  hath  been  able  to  conceive, 
but  I  will  easily  explain  by  these  little 
Bodies.  Let  us  begin  with  the  Sight. 
It  deserves,  as  being  the  most  incom- 
prehensible, our  first  Essay. 

1 "  It  is  performed  then,  as  I  imagine, 
when  the  Tunicles  of  the  Eye,  whose 
Pores  resemble  those  of  Glass,  trans- 
mitting that  fiery  Dust  which  is  called 
Visual  Rays,  the  same  is  stopt  by  some 
opacous  Matter  which  makes  it  recoil ; 
and  then,  meeting  in  its  retreat  the 
Image  of  the  Object  that  forced  it 

1  Notice  that  the  basis  of  this  discussion  is  the 
supposition  that  the  visual  rays  start  from  the  eye. 


Operation  of  the  Senses      1 8  3 

back,  and  that  Image  being  but  an  in- 
finite number  of  little  Bodies  exhaled 
in  an  equal  Superfice  from  the  Object 
beheld,  it  pursues  it  to  our  Eye: 
You'll  not  fail  to  Object,  I  know,  that 
Glass  is  an  Opacous  Body,  and  very 
Compact;  and  that  nevertheless,  in- 
stead of  reflecting  other  Bodies,  it  lets 
them  pass  through :  But  I  answer,  that 
the  Pores  of  Glass  are  shaped  in  the 
same  Figure  as  those  Atomes  are  which 
pass  through  it;  and  as  a  Wheat-Sieve 
is  not  proper  for  Sifting  of  Oats,  nor  an 
Oat- Sieve  to  Sift  Wheat;  so  a  Box  of 
Deal- Board,  though  it  be  thin  and  lets 
a  sound  go  through  it,  is  impenetrable 
to  the  Sight ;  and  a  piece  of  Chrystal, 
though  transparent  and  pervious  to  the 
Eye,  is  not  penetrable  to  the  Touch." 

I  could  not  here  forbear  to  interrupt 
him :  "  A  great  Poet  and  Philosopher  1  of 
our  World,"  said  I,  "hath  after  Epicu- 
rus and  Democritus*  spoken  of  these 

1  Lucretius. 

2  Democritus  was  the  originator  of  the  atomic 
theory. 


184     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

little  Bodies,  in  the  same  manner  al- 
most as  you  do;  and  therefore,  you 
don't  at  all  surprise  me  by  that  Dis- 
course: Only  tell  me,  I  pray,  as  you 
proceed,  how,  according  to  yaur  Prin- 
ciples, you'll  explain  to  me  the  manner 
of  drawing  your  Picture  in  a  Looking- 
Glass." 

"  That's  very  easie,"  replied  he,  "  for 
imagine  with  your  self,  that  those  Fires 
of  our  Eyes,  having  passed  through 
the  Glass  and  meeting  behind  it  an 
Opacous  Body  that  reverberates  them, 
they  come  back  the  way  they  went; 
and  finding  those  little  Bodies  march- 
ing in  equal  Superfices  upon  the  Glass, 
they  repel  them  to  our  Eyes ;  and  our 
Imagination,  hotter  than  the  other  Fac- 
ulties of  our  Soul,  attracts  the  more 
subtile,  wherewith  it  draws  our  Picture 
in  little. 

"  It  is  as  easie  to  conceive  the  Act  of 
Hearing,  and  for  Brevities  sake,  let  us 
only  consider  it  in  the  Harmony  of  a 
Lute,  touched  by  the  Hand  of  a  Master. 
You'll  ask  me,  How  can  it  be,  that  I 


Operation  of  the  Senses      185 

perceive  at  so  great  a  distance  a  thing 
which  I  do  not  see?  Does  there  a 
Sponge  go  out  of  my  Ears,  that  drinks 
up  that  Musick,  and  brings  it  back  with 
it  again?  Or  does  the  Player  beget  in 
my  Head  another  little  Musician,  with 
another  little  Lute,  who  has  Orders 
like  an  Eccho  to  sing  over  to  me  the 
same  Airs?  No;  But  that  Miracle  pro- 
ceeds from  this,  that  the  String  touched, 
striking  those  little  Bodies  of  which 
the  Air  is  composed,  drives  it  gently 
into  my  Brain,  with  those  little  Corpo- 
real Nothings  that  sweetly  pierce  into 
it;  and  according  as  the  String  is 
stretched,  the  Sound  is  high,  because  it 
more  vigorously  drives  the  Atomes; 
and  the  Organ  being  thus  penetrated, 
furnisheth  the  Fancy  wherewith  to 
make  a  Representation;  if  too  little, 
then  our  Memory  not  having  as  yet  fin- 
ished its  Image,  we  are  forced  to  repeat 
the  same  sound  to  it  again ;  to  the  end  it 
may  take  enough  of  Materials,  which,  for 
Instance,  the  Measures  of  a  Saraband* 

1  A  lively  Spanish  dance-measure. 


i  86     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

furnish  it  with,  for  finishing  the  Pic- 
ture of  that  Saraband  ;  but  that  Opera- 
tion is  nothing  near  so  wonderful  as 
those  others,  which  by  the  help  of  the 
same  Organ  excite  us  sometimes  to  Joy, 
sometimes  to  Anger. 

"  And  this  happens,  when  in  that  mo- 
tion these  little  Bodies  meet  with  other 
little  Bodies  within  us  moving  in  the 
same  manner,  or  whose  Figure  renders 
them  susceptible  of  the  same  Agitation ; 
for  then  these  New-comers  stir  up  their 
Landlords  to  move  as  they  do;  & 
thus,  when  a  violent  Air  meets  with 
the  Fire  of  our  Blood,  it  inclines  it  to 
the  same  Motion,  and  animates  it  to  a 
Sally,  which  is  the  thing  we  call  Heat 
of  Courage ;  if  the  Sound  be  softer,  and 
have  only  force  enough  to  raise  a  less 
Flame  in  greater  Agitation,  by  leading 
it  along  the  Nerves,  Membranes,  and 
through  the  interstices  of  our  Flesh  it 
excites  that  Tickling  which  is  called 
Joy:  And  so  it  happens  in  the  Ebulli- 
tion of  the  other  Passions,  according  as 
these  little  Bodies  are  more  or  less  vio- 


Operation  of  the  Senses      187 

lently  tossed  upon  us,  according  to  the 
Motion  they  receive  by  the  rencounter 
of  other  Agitations,  and  according  as 
they  find  Dispositions  in  us  for  motion. 
So  much  for  Hearing. 

"  Now,  I  think  the  Demonstration  of 
Touching  will  be  every  whit  as  easie, 
if  we  conceive  that  out  of  all  palpable 
Matter  there  is  a  perpetual  Emission  of 
little  Bodies,  and  that  the  more  we 
touch  them,  the  more  evaporates ;  be- 
cause we  press  them  out  of  the  Subject 
it  self,  as  Water  out  of  a  Sponge  when 
we  squeez  it.  The  Hard  make  a  report 
to  the  Organ  of  their  Hardness;  the 
Soft,  of  their  Softness ;  the  Rough,  &c. 
And  since  this  is  so,  we  are  not  so 
quaint  in  Feeling  with  Hands  used  to 
Labour,  because  of  the  Thickness  of 
the  Skin,  which  being  neither  porous, 
nor  animated,  with  difficulty  transmits 
the  Evaporations  of  Matter.  Some, 
perhaps,  may  desire  to  know  where  the 
Organ  of  Touching  has  its  Residence. 
For  my  part,  I  think  it  is  spread  over 
all  the  Surface  of  the  Body,  seeing  in 


i  88     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

all  parts  it  feels:  Yet  I  imagine,  that 
the  nearer  the  Member,  wherewith  we 
touch,  be  to  the  Head,  the  sooner  we 
distinguish;  which  Experience  con- 
vinces us  of,  when  with  shut  Eyes  we 
handle  any  thing,  for  then  we'll  more 
easily  guess  what  it  is ;  and  if  •  on  the 
contrary  we  feel  it  with  our  hinder 
Feet,  it  will  be  harder  for  us  to  know  it : 
And  the  Reason  is,  because  our  Skin 
being  all  over  perforated,  our  Nerves, 
which  are  of  no  compacter  Matter,  lose 
by  the  way  a  great  many  of  those  little 
Atomes  through  the  little  Holes  of 
their  Contexture,  before  they  reach  the 
Brain,  which  is  their  Journeys  end :  It 
remains,  that  I  speak  of  the  Smelling 
and  Tasting. 

"  Pray  tell  me,  when  I  taste  a  Fruit, 
is  it  not  because  the  Heat  of  my  Mouth 
melts  it?  Confess  to  me  then,  that 
there  being  Salts  in  a  Pear,  and  that 
they  being  separated  by  Dissolution 
into  little  Bodies  of  a  different  Figure 
from  those  which  make  the  Taste  of  an 
Apple,  they  must  needs  pierce  our 


Operation  of  the  Senses      i89 

Pallate  in  a  very  different  manner: 
Just  so  as  the  thrust  of  a  Pike,  that 
passes  through  me,  is  not  like  the 
Wound  which  a  Pistol- Bullet  makes  me 
feel  with  a  sudden  start ;  and  as  that 
Pistol  Bullet  makes  me  suffer  another 
sort  of  Pain  than  that  of  a  Slug  [of 
Steel. 

"I  have  nothing  to  say,  as  to  the 
Smelling,  seeing  the  Philosophers  them- 
selves confess,  that  it  is  performed  by 
a  continual  Emission  of  little  Bodies. 

"  Now  upon  the  same  Principle  will  I 
explain  to  you  the  Creation,  Harmony, 
and  Influence  of  the  Celestial  Globes, 
with  the  immutable  Variety  of  Me- 
teors. " 

He  was  about  to  proceed;  but  the 
Old  Landlord  coming  in,  made  our 
Philosopher  think  of  withdrawing :  He 
brought  in  Christals  full  of  Glow- 
worms, to  light  the  Parlour ;  but  seeing 
those  little  fiery  Insects  lose  much  of 
their  Light,  when  they  are  not  fresh 
gathered,  these  which  were  ten  days 
old  had  hardly  any  at  all.  My  Spirit 


190     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

stayed  not  till  the  Company  should  com- 
plain of  it,  but  went  up  to  his  Chamber, 
and  came  immediately  back  again 
with  two  Bowls  of  Fire  so  Sparkling 
that  all  wondred  he  burnt  not  his  Fin- 
gers. "These  incombustible  Tapers," 
said  he,  "  will  serve  us  better  than  your 
Week J  of  Worms.  They  are  Rays  of 
the  Sun,  which  I  have  purged  from 
their  Heat;  otherwise,  the  corrosive 
qualities  of  their  Fire  would  have  daz- 
led  and  offended  your  Eyes;  I  have 
fixed  their  Light,  and  inclosed  it  within 
these  transparent  Bowls.2  That  ought 
not  to  afford  you  any  great  Cause  of 
Admiration;  for  it  is  not  harder  for 
me,  who  am  a  Native  of  the  Sun,  to 
condense  his  Beams,  which  are  the 
Dust  of  that  World,  than  it  is  for  you 

*Wick  (cf.  the  Standard  Dictionary).  Some 
modern  French  editions  have  u  pelotons  de  verre," 
meaning  "glass  bulbs, "but  this  is  evidently  a  mis- 
take, since  the  seventeenth-century  editions  have 
verres,  which  is  their  form,  in  all  cases,  for  the 
modern  vers.  See  also  the  first  meaning  of  peloton 
in  Littre. 

2  The  incandescent  electric  light  ? 


Operation  of  the  Senses      1 9 1 

to  gather  the  Atomes  of  the  pulveriz'd 
Earth  of  this  World. " 

Thereupon  our  Landlord  sent  a  Ser- 
vant to  wait  upon  the  Philosophers 
home,  it  being  then  Night,  with  a  dozen 
Globes  of  Glowworms  hanging  at  his 
four  Legs.  As  for  my  Preceptor  and 
my  self,  we  went  to  rest,  by  order  of  the 
Phisiognomist.  He  laid  me  that  Night 
in  a  Chamber  of  Violets  and  Lillies, 
[and]  ordered  me  to  be  tickled  after 
the  usual  manner. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Of  the  Books  in  the  Moon,  and  their 
Fashion  ;  of  Death,  Burial,  and  Burn- 
ing ;  of  the  Manner  of  telling  the 
Time  ;  and  of  Noses, 

Next  Morning  about  Nine  a  Clock,  my 
Spirit  came  in,  and  told  me  that  he  was 

come   from  Court,  where 


one  of  the  Queens  Maids  of  Honour, 
had  sent  for  him,  and  that  she  had  en- 
quired after  me,  protesting  that  she 
still  persisted  in  her  Design  to  be  as 
good  as  her  Word;  that  is,  that  with 
all  her  Heart  she  would  follow  me,  if 
I  would  take  her  along  with  me  to 
the  other  World;  "which  exceedingly 
pleased  me,"  said  he,  "when  I  under- 
stood that  the  chief  Motive  which  in- 
clined her  to  the  Voyage,  was  to  be- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  FLYING  MACHINE. 


— From  a  ijth  Century  Engraving 


Books  in  the  Moon      i 


93 


come  Christian :  And  therefore,  I  have 
promised  to  forward  her  Design,  what 
lies  in  me ;  and  for  that  end  to  invent 
a  Machine  that  may  hold  three  or  four, 
wherein  you  may  mount  to  day,  both 
together,  if  you  think  fit.  I'll  go  seri- 
ously set  about  the  performance  of  my 
Undertaking;  and  in  the  mean  time, 
to  entertain  you,  during  my  Absence,  I 
leave  you  here  a  Book,  which  hereto- 
fore I  brought  with  me  from  my  Native 
Countrey;  the  Title  of  it  is,  The  States 
and  Empires  of  the  Sun,  with  an  Addi- 
tion of  the  History  of  the  Spark. f  I  also 

1  Cyrano's  own  work.  It  is  full  of  interesting 
matters,  including  a  trip  through  the  country  of 
the  Birds,  which  offers  many  points  of  comparison 
with  Gulliver's  Voyage  to  the  country  of  the 
Houyhnhms.  Cyrano  finally,  under  the  guidance 
of  Campanella,  arrives  at  the  land  of  the  Philos- 
ophers of  the  Sun  (compare  Swift's  Laputa),  where 
he  meets  Descartes  and  Gassendi,  as  Gulliver  does 
in  the  Laputan  province  of  Glubbdubdrib  (Voyage 
to  Laputa,  chap.  viii.). 

Cyrano's  machine  for  reaching  the  sun,  depicted 
in  the  illustration  opposite,  is  best  described  in  the 
words  of  M.  Rostand's  play,  and  completes  our 
parallels  with  all  the  six  means  of  scaling  the  sky 
which  Cyrano  there  enumerates:  "Or  else,  I  could 
13 


194     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

give  you  this,  which  I  esteem  much 
more ;  it  is  the  great  Work  of  the  Phi- 
losophers, composed  by  one  of  the  great- 
est Wits  of  the  Sun. l  He  proves  in  it 
that  all  things  are  true,  and  shews  the 
way  of  uniting  Physically  the  Truths  of 
every  Contradiction ;  as,  for  Example, 
That  White  is  Black,  and  Black  White ; 
that  one  may  be,  and  not  be  at  the 
same  time ;  that  there  may  be  a  Moun- 
tain without  a  Valley ;  that  nothing  is 
something,  and  that  all  things  that  are, 
are  not ;  but  observe,  that  he  proves  all 
these  unheard-of  Paradoxes  without 
any  Captious  or  Sophistical  Argu- 
ment. 

"  When  you  are  weary  of  Reading, 
you  may  Walk,  or  Converse  with  our 
Landlord's  Son,  he  has  a  very  Charm- 
ing Wit ;  but  that  which  I  dislike  in 
him  is,  that  he  is  a  little  Atheistical. 
If  he  chance  to  Scandalize  you,  or  by 

have  let  the  wind  into  a  cedar  coffer,  then  ratified 
the  imprisoned  element  by  means  of  cunningly  ad- 
justed burning  glasses,  and  soared  up  with  it." 

1  Probably  Campanella  ;   cf.  p.  78,  n.  i.    On  his 
"great  work,"  cf.  also  p.  79,  n.  i. 


Books  in  the  Moon      195 

any  Argument  shake  your  Faith,  fail 
not  immediately  to  come  and  propose  it 
to  me,  and  I'll  clear  the  Difficulties  of 
it;  any  other,  but  I,  would  enjoin  you 
to  break  Company  with  him ;  but  since 
he  is  extreamly  proud  and  conceited,  I 
am  certain  he  would  take  your  flight 
for  a  Defeat,  and  would  believe  your 
Faith  to  be  grounded  on  no  Reason,  if 
you  refused  to  hear  his. " 

Having  said  so,  he  left  me ;  and  no 
sooner  was  his  back  turned,  but  I  fell 
to  consider  attentively  my  Books  and 
their  Boxes,  that's  to  say,  their  Covers, 
which  seemed  to  me  to  be  wonderfully 
Rich ;  the  one  was  cut  of  a  single  Dia- 
mond, incomparably  more  resplendent 
than  ours;  the  second  looked  like  a 
prodigious  great  Pearl,  cloven  in  two. 
My  Spirit  had  translated  those  Books 
into  the  Language  of  that  World ;  but 
because  I  have  none  of  their  Print,  I'll 
now  explain  to  you  the  Fashion  of  these 
two  Volumes. 

As  I  opened  the  Box,  I  found  within 
somewhat  of  Metal,  almost  like  to  our 


196     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

Clocks,  full  of  I  know  not  what  little 
Springs  and  imperceptible  Engines: 
It  was  a  Book,  indeed;  but  a  Strange 
and  Wonderful  Book,  that  had  neither 
Leaves  nor  Letters:  In  fine,  it  was  a 
Book  made  wholly  for  the  Ears,  and 
not  the  Eyes.  So  that  when  any  Body 
has  a  mind  to  read  in  it,  he  winds  up 
that  Machine  with  a  great  many  Strings ; 
then  he  turns  the  Hand  to  the  Chapter 
which  he  desires  to  hear,  and  straight, 
as  from  the  Mouth  of  a  Man,  or  a  Musi- 
cal Instrument,  proceed  all  the  distinct 
and  different  Sounds,1  which  the  Lunar 
Grandees  make  use  of  for  expressing 
their  Thoughts,  instead  of  Language. 

When  I  since  reflected  on  this  Mirac- 
ulous Invention,  I  no  longer  wondred 
that  the  Young- Men  of  that  Country 
were  more  knowing  at  Sixteen  or  Eigh- 
teen years  Old,  than  the  Gray- Beards 
of  our  Climate;  for  knowing  how  to 
Read  as  soon  as  Speak,  they  are  never 
without  Lectures,2  in  their  Chambers, 

i  Is  this  an  anticipation  of  the  phonograph? 

2 Readings.     Cf.  Sir  Thomas  Browne:     "In  the 


Death,  Burial,  and  Burning    197 

their  Walks,  the  Town,  or  Travelling ; 
they  may  have  in  their  Pockets,  or  at 
their  Girdles,  Thirty  of  these  Books, 
where  they  need  but  wind  up  a  Spring 
to  hear  a  whole  Chapter,  and  so  more, 
if  they  have  a  mind  to  hear  the  Book 
quite  through ;  so  that  you  never  want 
the  Company  of  all  the  great  Men,  liv- 
ing and  Dead,  who  entertain  you  with 
Living  Voices.  This  Present  employed 
me  about  an  hour;  and  then  hanging 
them  to  my  Ears,  like  a  pair  of  Pen- 
dants, I  went  a  Walking;  but  I  was 
hardly  at  End  of  the  Street  when  I  met 
a  Multitude  of  People  very  Melancholy. 
Four  of  them  carried  upon  their 
Shoulders  a  kind  of  a  Herse,  covered 
with  Black :  I  asked  a  Spectator,  what 
that  Procession,  like  to  a  Funeral  in  my 
Country,  meant?  He  made  me  answer, 


that  that  naughty  — j^ — '  ,   called   so 


by  the  People  because  of  a  knock  he 

lecture  of  Holy  Scripture,  their  apprehensions  are 
commonly  confined  unto  the  literal  sense  of  the 
text." 


198     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

had  received  upon  the  Right  Knee, 
being  convicted  of  Envy  and  Ingrati- 
tude, died  the  day  before;  and  that 
Twenty  Years  ago,  the  Parliament  had 
Condemned  him  to  die  in  his  Bed,  and 
then  to  be  interred  after  his  Death. 
I  fell  a  Laughing  at  that  Answer.  And 
he  asking  me,  why?  "  You  amaze  me," 
said  I,  "  that  that  which  is  counted  a 
Blessing  in  our  World,  as  a  long  Life, 
a  peaceable  Death,  and  an  Honourable 
Burial,  should  pass  here  for  an  exem- 
plary Punishment."  "What,  do  you 
take  a  Burial  for  a  precious  thing  then, " 
replyed  that  Man?  "  And,  in  good  ear- 
nest, can  you  conceive  any  thing  more 
Horrid  than  a  Corps  crawling  with 
Worms,  at  the  discretion  of  Toads 
which  feed  on  his  Cheeks ;  the  Plague 
it  self  Clothed  with  the  Body  of  a  Man? 
Good  God!  The  very  thought  of  hav- 
ing, even  when  I  am  Dead,  my  Face 
wrapt  up  in  a  Shroud,  and  a  Pike-depth 
of  Earth  upon  my  Mouth,  makes  me  I 
can  hardly  fetch  breath.  The  Wretch 
whom  you  see  carried  here,  besides  the 


Death,  Burial,  and  Burning    199 

disgrace  of  being  thrown  into  a  Pit, 
hath  been  Condemned  to  be  attended 
by  an  Hundred  and  Fifty  of  his  Friends ; 
who  are  strictly  charged,  as  a  Punish- 
ment for  their  having  loved  an  envious 
and  ungrateful  Person,  to  appear  with 
a  sad  Countenance  at  his  Funeral ;  and 
had  it  not  been  that  the  Judges  took 
some  compassion  of  him,  imputing  his 
Crimes  partly  to  his  want  of  Wit,  they 
would  have  been  commanded  to  Weep 
there  also. 

"  All  are  Burnt  here,  except  Male- 
factors: And,  indeed,  it  is  a  most  ra- 
tional and  decent  Custom :  For  we  be- 
lieve, that  the  Fire  having  separated 
the  pure  from  the  impure,  the  Heat  by 
Sympathy  reassembles  the  natural  Heat 
which  made  the  Soul,  dnd  gives  it  force 
to  mount  up  till  it  arrive  at  some  Star, 
the  Country  of  certain  people  more  im- 
material and  intellectual  than  us ;  be- 
cause their  Temper  ought  to  suit  with, 
and  participate  of  the  Globe  which  they 
inhabit. 

"However,  this  is  not   our  neatest 


aoo     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

way  of  Burying  neither ;  for  when  any 
one  of  our  Philosophers  comes  to  an 
Age,  wherein  he  finds  his  Wit  begin  to 
decay,  and  the  Ice  of  his  years  to  numm 
the  Motions  of  his  Soul,  he  invites  all 
his  Friends  to  a  sumptuous  Banquet; 
then  having  declared  to  them  the  Rea- 
sons that  move  him  to  bid  farewel  to 
Nature,  and  the  little  hopes  he  has  of 
adding  any  thing  more  to  his  worthy 
Actions,  they  shew  him  Favour;  that's 
to  say,  they  suffer  him  to  Dye ;  or  other- 
wise are  severe  to  him  and  command 
him  to  Live.  When  then,  by  plurality 
of  Voices,  they  have  put  his  Life  into 
his  own  Hands,  he  acquaints  his  dear- 
est Friends  with  the  day  and  place. 
These  purge,  and  for  Four  and  Twenty 
hours  abstain  from  Eating ;  then  being 
come  to  the  House  of  the  Sage,  and 
having  Sacrificed  to  the  Sun,  they  enter 
the  Chamber  where  the  generous  Phi- 
losopher waits  for  them  on  a  Bed  of 
State;  every  one  embraces  him,  and 
when  it  comes  to  his  turn  whom  he 
loves  best,  having  kissed  him  affec- 


Telling  the  Time       201 

tionately,  leaning  upon  his  Bosom, 
and  joyning  Mouth  to  Mouth,  with  his 
right  hand  he  sheaths  a  Dagger  in  his 
Heart." 

I  interrupted  this  Discourse,  saying 
to  him  that  told  me  all,  That  this  Man- 
ner of  Acting  much  resembled  the  ways 
of  some  People  of  our  World ;  and  so 
pursued  my  Walk,  which  was  so  long 
that  when  I  came  back  Dinner  had  been 
ready  Two  Hours.  They  asked  me, 
why  I  came  so  late?  It  is  not  my  Fault, 
said  I  to  the  Cook,  who  complained:  I 
asked  what  it  was  a  Clock  several  times 
in  the  Street,  but  they  made  me  no  an- 
swer but  by  opening  their  Mouths,  shut- 
ting their  Teeth,  and  turning  their 
Faces  awry. 

"  How,"  cried  all  the  Company,  "did 
not  you  know  by  that,  that  they  shewed 
you  what  it  was  a  Clock?"  "Faith," 
said  I,  "they  might  have  held  their 
great  Noses  in  the  Sun  long  enough, 
before  I  had  understood  what  they 
meant."  "It's  a  Commodity,"  said 
they,  "that  saves  them  the  Trouble  of 


2O2     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

a  Watch;  for  with  their  Teeth  they 
make  so  true  a  Dial,  that  when  they 
would  tell  any  Body  the  Hour  of  the 
day,  they  do  no  more  but  open  their 
Lips,  and  the  shadow  of  that  Nose,  fall- 
ing upon  their  Teeth,  like  the  Gnomon 
of  a  Sun-Dial,  makes  the  precise  time. 
"  Now  that  you  may  know  the  reason, 
why  all  People  in  this  Country  have 
great  Noses;  as  soon  as  a  Woman  is 
brought  to  Bed  the  Midwife  carries  the 
Child  to  the  Master  of  the  Seminary  ; 
and  exactly  at  the  years  end,  the  Skill- 
ful being  assembled,  if  his  Nose  prove 
shorter  than  the  standing  Measure, 
which  an  Alderman  keeps,  he  is  judged 
to  be  a  Flat  Nose,  and  delivered  over  to 
be  gelt.  You'l  ask  me,  no  doubt,  the 
Reason  of  that  Barbarous  Custom,  and 
how  it  comes  to  pass  that  we,  amongst 
whom  Virginity  is  a  Crime,  should  en- 
joyn  Continence  by  force;  but  know 
that  we  do  so,  because  after  Thirty 
Ages  experience  we  have  observed,  that 
a  great  Nose  is  the  mark  of  a  Witty, 
Courteous,  Affable,  Generous  and  Lib- 


Of  Noses 


203 


eral  Man ;  and  that  a  little  Nose  is  a 
Sign  of  the  contrary : '  Wherefore  of 
Flat  Noses  we  make  Eunuchs,  because 
the  Republick  had  rather  have  no  Chil- 
dren at  all  than  Children  like  them." 

He  was  still  a  speaking,  when  I  saw  a 
man  come  in  stark  Naked;  I  presently 
sat  down  and  put  on  my  Hat  to  shew 
him  Honour,  for  these  are  the  greatest 
Marks  of  Respect,  that  can  be  shew'd 
to  any  in  that  Country.  "  The  King- 
dom/' said  he,  "  desires  you  would  give 
the  Magistrates  notice,  before  you  re- 
turn to  your  own  World;  because  a 
Mathematician  hath  just  now  under- 
taken before  the  Council,  that  provided 
when  you  are  returned  home,  you 
would  make  a  certain  Machine,  that 
he '1  teach  you  how  to  do;  he'l  attract 
your  Globe,  and  joyn  it  to  this." 

During  all  this  Discourse  we  went  on 

i  Cf.  M.  Rostand's  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,  act  I. 
scene  iv. :  "  Cyrano.  A  great  nose  is  properly  the 
index  of  an  affable,  kindly,  courteous  man,  witty, 
liberal,  brave,  such  as  I  am !  and  such  as  you  are 
forevermore  precluded  from  supposing  yourself, 
deplorable  rogue ! " 


204    A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

with  our  Dinner;  and  as  soon  as  we 
rose  from  Table,  we  went  to  take  the 
Air  in  the  Garden ;  where  taking  Occa- 
sion to  speak  of  the  Generation  and 
Conception  of  things,  he  said  to  me, 
"  You  must  know,  that  the  Earth,  con- 
verting it  self  into  a  Tree,  from  a  Tree 
into  a  Hog,  and  from  a  Hog  into  a 
Man,  is  an  Argument  that  all  things 
in  Nature  aspire  to  be  Men ;  since  that 
is  the  most  perfect  Being,  as  being 
a  Quintessence,  and  the  best  devised 
Mixture  in  the  World;  which  alone 
unites  the  Animal  and  Rational  Life 
into  one.  None  but  a  Pedant  will  deny 
me  this,  when  we  see  that  a  Plumb- 
Tree,  by  the  Heat  of  its  Germ,  as  by  a 
Mouth,  sucks  in  and  digests  the  Earth 
that's  about  it;  that  a  Hog  devours  the 
Fruit  of  this  Tree,  and  converts  it  into 
the  Substance  of  it  self;  and  that  a 
Man  feeding  on  that  Hog,  reconcocts 
that  dead  Flesh,  unites  it  to  himself, 
and  makes  that  Animal  to  revive  under 
a  more  Noble  Species.  So  the  Man 
whom  you  see,  perhaps  threescore 


Of  Noses  205 

years  ago  was  no  more  but  a  Tuft  of 
Grass  in  my  Garden ;  which  is  the  more 
probable,  that  the  Opinion  of  the  Pytha- 
gorean Metamorphosis,  which  so  many 
Great  Men  maintain,  in  all  likelyhood 
has  only  reached  us  to  engage  us  into 
an  Enquiry  after  the  truth  of  it ;  as,  in 
reality,  we  have  found  that  Matter,  and 
all  that  has  a  Vegetative  or  Sensitive 
Life,  when  once  it  hath  attained  to  the 
period  of  its  Perfection,  wheels  about 
again  and  descends  into  its  Inanity,  that 
it  may  return  upon  the  Stage  and  Act 
the  same  Parts  over  and  over.'*  I  went 
down  extreamly  satisfyed  to  the  Gar- 
den, and  was  beginning  to  rehearse  to 
my  Companion  what  our  Master  had 
taught  me;  when  the  Physiognomist 
came  to  conduct  us  to  Supper,  and 
afterwards  to  Rest. 


CHAPTER  XVL 

Of  Miracles ;    and  of   Curing  by^   the 
Imagination. 

Next  Morning,  so  soon  as  I  awoke,  I 
went  to  call  tip  my  Antagonist.  "  It 
is,"  said  I,  accosting  him,  "as  great  a 
Miracle  to  find  a  great  Wit,  like  yours, 
buried  in  Sleep,  as  to  see  Fire  without 
Heat  and  Action:  "  He  bore  with  this 
ugly  Compliment;  "but,"  (cryed  he, 
with  a  Cholerick  kind  of  Love)  "will 
you  never  leave  these  Fabulous  Terms? 
Know,  that  these  Names  defame  the 
Name  of  a  Philosopher ;  and  that  see- 
ing the  wise  Man  sees  nothing  in  the 
World,  but  what  he  conceives,  and 
judges  may  be  conceived,  he  ought  to 
abhor  all  those  Expressions  of  Prodi- 
gies, and  extraordinary  Events  of  Na- 
ture, which  Block  heads  have  invented 
to  excuse  the  Weakness  of  their  Under- 
standing." 


Of  Curing  by  Faith      207 

I  thought  my  self  then  obliged  in 
Conscience,  to  endeavour  to  undeceive 
him ;  and  therefore,  said  I,  "  Though 
you  be  very  stiff  and  obstinate  in  your 
Opinions,  yet  I  have  plainly  seen  super- 
natural Things  happen :"  "  Say  you  so, " 
continued  he;  "you  little  know,  that 
the  force  of  Imagination  is  able  to  cure 
all  the  Diseases  which  you  attribute  to 
supernatural  Causes,  by  reason  of  a 
certain  natural  Balsam,  that  contains 
Qualities  quite  contrary  to  the  qualities 
of  the  Diseases  that  attack  us;  which 
happens,  when  our  Imagination  in- 
formed by  Pain  searches  in  that  place 
for  the  specifick  Remedy,  which  it  ap- 
plies to  the  Poison.  That's  the  reason, 
why  an  able  Physician  of  your  World 
advises  the  Patient  to  make  use  of  an 
Ignorant  Doctor  whom  he  esteems  to 
be  very  knowing,  rather  than  of  a  very 
Skilful  Physician  whom  he  may  imag- 
ine to  be  Ignorant ;  because  he  fancies, 
that  our  Imagination  labouring  to  re- 
cover our  Health,  provided  it  be  as- 
sisted by  Remedies,  is  able  to  cure  us ; 


2o8     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

but  that  the  strongest  Medicines  are 
too  weak,  when  not  applied  by  Imagi- 
nation. Do  you  think  it  strange,  that 
the  first  Men  of  your  World  lived  so 
many  Ages  without  the  least  Knowl- 
edge of  Physick?  No.  And  what 
might  have  been  the  Cause  of  that,  in 
your  judgement;  unless  their  Natui-e 
was  as  yet  in  its  force,  and  that  natural 
Balsam  in  vigour,  before  they  were 
spoilt  by  the  Drugs  wherewith  Physi- 
cians consume  you;  it  being  enough 
then  for  the  recovery  of  ones  Health, 
earnestly  to  wish  for  it,  and  to  imagine 
himself  cured :  So  that  their  vigorous 
Fancies,  plunging  into  that  vital  Oyl, 
extracted  the  Elixir  of  it,  and  applying 
Actives  to  Passives,  in  almost  the  twink- 
ling of  an  Eye  they  found  themselves 
as  sound  as  before:  Which,  notwith- 
standing the  Depravation  of  Nature, 
happens  even  at  this  day,  though  some- 
what rarely ;  and  is  by  the  Multitude 
called  a  Miracle:  For  my  part,  I  be- 
lieve not  a  jot  on't,  and  have  this  to 
say  for  my  self,  that  it  is  easier  for  all 


Cyrano   Bergerac          xiii 

temper  of  Cyrano,  is  his  battle  with 
Fagotin.  A  mountebank  named  Brio- 
che had  a  theatre  of  marionnettes,  near 
the  Pont-Neuf,  and  used  an  ape  called 
Fagotin,  fantastically  dressed,  to  at- 
tract spectators.  Some  enemy  of  Cy- 
rano, perhaps  Dassoucy,  one  day  per- 
suaded Brioche*  to  dress  his  ape  up  in 
imitation  of  Cyrano,  with  long  sword 
and  nose  as  long.  Cyrano,  arriving 
and  seeing  this  parody  of  himself  ex- 
alted on  a  platform,  unsheathes  in  blind 
rage,  drives  the  crowd  of  lackeys  and 
loafers  right  and  left  with  the  flat  of 
his  sword,  and  impales  the  poor  ape 
who  was  holding  out  his  sword  in  a 
posture  of  self-defence.  According  to 
the  contemporary  pamphlet,  partly  in 
prose  and  partly  in  verse,  which  was 
made  upon  this  marvellous  adventure, 
Brioche*  brought  suit  for  damages 
against  Bergerac.  But  even  in  these 
ridiculous  circumstances  Cyrano  man- 
aged to  get  the  laughers  on  his  side ;  and 
claiming  that  in  the  country  of  art  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  gold  and  silver,  and 


xiv    A  Voyage  to  me  Moon 

that  he  had  a  right  to  pay  in  the  money 
of  the  country,  he  promised  to  eternize 
the  dead  ape  in  Apollinic  verse;  and 
so  was  acquitted. 

The  story  of  Montfleury,  the  fat  actor 
whom  Cyrano  detested,  is  hardly  less 
fantastic ;  and  in  connection  with  it  we 
have  the  witness  of  Cyrano's  own  let- 
ter "  Against  Montfleury  the  Fat,  bad 
Actor  and  bad  Author,"  the  tenth  of 
the  Satiric  Letters.  According  to  all 
the  books  of  theatrical  anecdotes,  Cy- 
rano one  evening  ordered  him  off  the 
stage,  and  forbade  him  to  reappear  for 
a  month;  and  when  two  days  later  he 
did  reappear,  Cyrano  once  more  drove 
him  in  disgrace  to  the  wings.  The 
audience  protesting,  Cyrano  challenged 
them  each  and  all  to  meet  him  in  duel, 
and  carried  his  point.  Whether  he  of- 
fered to  take  down  their  names  in  order 
or  not,  does  not  appear. 

In  the  meantime,  more  serious  work 
turned  up.  The  regiment  of  the  ca- 
dets was  sent  against  the  Germans,  en- 
tered Mouzon,  was  besieged  there.  In 


Of  Miracles  209 

these  Doctors  to  be  mistaken,  than  that 
the  other  may  not  easily  come  to  pass : 
For  I  put  the  Question  to  them ;  A  Pa- 
tient recovered  out  of  a  Feaver,  heart- 
ily desired,  during  his  sickness,  as  it  is 
like,  that  he  might  be  cured,  and,  may 
be,  made  Vows  for  that  effect ;  so  that 
of  necessity  he  must  either  have  dyed, 
continued  sick,  or  recovered:  Had  he 
died,  then  would  it  have  been  said,  kind 
Heaven  hath  put  an  end  to  his  Pains; 
Nay,  and  that  according  to  his  Prayers, 
he  was  now  cured  of  all  Diseases,  praised 
be  the  Lord:  Had  his  Sickness  con- 
tinued, one  would  have  said,  he  wanted 
Faith;  but  because  he  is  cured,  it's  a 
Miracle  forsooth.  Is  it  not  far  more 
likely,  that  his  Fancy,  being  excited  by 
violent  Desires,  hath  done  its  Duty  and 
wrought  the  Cure?  For  grant  he  hath 
escaped,  what  then?  must  it  needs  be 
a  Miracle?  How  many  have  we  seen, 
pray,  and  after  many  solemn  Vows  and 
Protestations,  go  to  pot  with  all  their 
fair  Promises  and  Resolutions." 

"But  at  least,"  replied  I  to  him,    "if 
14 


210     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

what  you  say  of  that  Balsam  be  true,  it 
is  a  mark  of  the  Rationality  of  our 
Soul;  seeing  without  the  help  of  our 
Reason,  or  the  Concurrence  of  our 
Will,  she  Acts  of  her  self;  as  if  being 
without  us,  she  applied  the  Active  to 
the  Passive.  Now  if  being  separated 
from  us  she  is  Rational,  it  necessarily 
follows  that  she  is  Spiritual ;  and  if  you 
acknowledge  her  to  be  Spiritual,  I  con- 
clude she  is  immortal;  seeing  Death 
happens  to  Animals,  only  by  the  chang- 
ing of  Forms,  of  which  Matter  alone  is 
capable. " 

The  Young  Man  at  that,  decently  sit- 
ting down  upon  his  Bed,  and  making 
me  also  to  sit,  discoursed,  as  I  remem- 
ber, in  this  manner :  "  As  for  the  Soul  of 
Beasts,  which  is  Corporeal,  I  do  not 
wonder  they  Die ;  seeing  the  best  Har- 
mony of  the  four  Qualities  may  be  dis- 
solved, the  greatest  force  of  Blood 
quelled,  and  the  loveliest  Proportion  of 
Organs  disconcerted ;  but  I  wonder  very 
much,  that  our  intellectual,  incorporeal, 
and  immortal  Soul  should  be  con- 


Of  Soul  and   Sense       211 

strained  to  dislodge  and  leave  us,  by 
the  same  Cause  that  makes  an  Ox  to 
perish.  Hath  she  covenanted  with 
our  Body,  that  as  soon  as  he  should  re- 
ceive a  prick  with  a  Sword  in  the  Heart, 
a  Bullet  in  the  Brain,  or  a  Musket-shot 
through  the  Chest,  she  should  pack  up 
and  be  gone?  And  if  that  Soul  were 
Spiritual,  and  of  her  self  so  Rational 
that  being  separated  from  our  Mass 
she  understood  as  well  as  when  Clothed 
with  a  Body ;  why  cannot  Blind  Men, 
born  with  all  the  fair  advantages  of 
that  intellectual  Soul,  imagine  what  it 
is  to  see?  Is  it  because  they  are  not  as 
yet  deprived  of  Sight,  by  the  Death  of 
all  their  Senses?  How!  I  cannot  then 
make  use  of  my  Right  Hand,  because 
I  have  a  Left ! 

"And  in  fine,  to  make  a  just  com- 
parison which  will  overthrow  all  that 
you  have  said ;  I  shall  only  alledge  to 
you  a  Painter,  who  cannot  work  with- 
out his  pencil:  And  I'll  tell  you,  that 
it  is  just  so  with  the  Soul,  when  she 
wants  the  use  of  the  Senses.  Yet  they'l 


212     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

have  the  Soul,  which  can  only  act  im- 
perfectly, because  of  the  loss  of  one  of 
her  Tools,  in  the  course  of  Life,  to  be 
able  then  to  work  to  Perfection,  when 
after  our  death  she  hath  lost  them  all. 
If  they  tell  me,  over  and  over  again, 
that  she  needeth  not  these  Instruments 
for  performing  her  Functions,  I'll  tell 
them  e'en  so,  That  then  all  the  Blind 
about  the  Streets  ought  to  be  Whipt  at 
a  Carts- Arse,  for  playing  the  Counter- 
feits in  pretending  not  to  See  a  bit." 

He  would  have  gone  on  in  such  im- 
pertinent Arguments,  had  not  I  stopt 
his  Mouth,  by  desiring  him  to  forbear, 
as  he  did  for  fear  of  a  quarrel ;  for  he 
perceived  I  began  to  be  in  a  heat :  So 
that  he  departed,  and  left  me  admiring 
the  People  of  that  World,  amongst 
whom  even  the  meanest  have  Naturally 
so  much  Wit;  whereas  those  of  ours 
have  so  little,  and  yet  so  dearly  bought. 


CHAPTER   XVII.  , 
Of  the  Author's  Return  to  the  Earth. 

At  length  my  Love  for  my  Country 
took  me  off  of  the  desire  and  thoughts 
I  had  of  staying  there ;  I  minded  noth- 
ing now  but  to  be  gone ;  but  I  saw  so 
much  impossibility  in  the  matter,  that 
it  made  me  quite  peevish  and  melan- 
cholick.  My  Spirit  observed  it,  and 
having  asked  me,  What  was  the  reason 
that  my  Humor  was  so  much  altered? 
I  frankly  told  him  the  Cause  of  my 
Melancholy ;  but  he  made  me  such  fair 
Promises  concerning  my  Return,  that 
I  relied  wholly  upon  him.  I  acquainted 
the  Council  with  my  design ;  who  sent 
for  me,  and  made  me  take  an  Oath,  that 
I  should  relate  in  our  World,  all  that  I 
had  seen  in  that.  My  Pass-ports  then 
were  expeded,  and  my  Spirit  having 
made  necessary  Provisions  for  so  long 
a  Voyage,  asked  me,  What  part  of  my 
Country  I  desired  to  light  in?  I  told 


214     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

him,  that  since  most  of  the  Rich  Youths 
of  Paris,  once  in  their  life  time,  made  a 
Journey  tq  Rome  ;  imagining  after  that 
that  there  remained  no  more  worth  the 
doing  or  seeing;  I  prayed  him  to  be  so 
good  as  to  let  me  imitate  them. 

"But  withal,"  said  I,  "in  what  Ma- 
chine shall  we  perform  the  Voyage,  and 
what  Orders  do  you  think  the  Mathe- 
matician, who  talked  t'other  day  of 
joyning  this  Globe  to  ours,  will  give 
me? "  "  As  to  the  Mathematician, "  said 
he,  "  let  that  be  no  hinderance  to  you ; 
for  he  is  a  Man  who  promises  much, 
and  performs  little  or  nothing.  And 
as  to  the  Machine  that's  to  carry  you 
back,  it  shall  be  the  same  which  brought 
you  to  Court."  "How,"  said  I,  "will 
the  Air  become  as  solid  as  the  Earth,  to 
bear  your  steps  ?  I  cannot  believe  that : ' ' 
"And  it  is  strange,"  replied  he,  "that 
you  should  believe,  and  not  believe. 
Pray  why  should  the  Witches  of  your 
World,  who  march  in  the  Air,  and  con- 
duct whole  Armies  of  Hail,  Snow,  Rain, 
and  other  Meteors,  from  one  Province 


Return  to  the   Earth      215 

into  another,  have  more  Power  than 
we?  Pray  have  a  little  better  opinion 
of  me,  than  to  think  I  would  impose 
upon  you."  "  The  truth  is,"  said  I,  "  I 
have  received  so  many  good  Offices 
from  you,  as  well  as  Socrates,  and  the 
rest,  for  whom  you  have  [had]  so  great 
kindness,  that  I  dare  trust  my  self  in 
your  hands,  as  now  1  do,  resigning  my 
self  heartily  up  to  you." 

I  had  no  sooner  said  the  word,  but  he 
rose  like  a  Whirl-wind,  and  holding 
me  between  his  Arms,  without  the  least 
uneasiness  he  made  me  pass  that  vast 
space  which  Astronomers  reckon  be- 
twixt the  Moon  and  us,  in  a  day  and  a 
halfs  time;  which  convinced  me  that 
they  tell  a  Lye  who  say  that  a  Mill- 
stone would  be  Three  Hundred  Three- 
score, and  I  know  not  how  many  years 
more,  in  falling  from  Heaven,  since  I 
was  so  short  a  while  in  dropping  down 
from  the  Globe  of  the  Moon  upon  this. 
At  length,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
Second  day,  I  perceived  I  was  drawing 
near-  our  World ;  since  I  could  already 


2i 6     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

distinguish  Europe  from  Africa,  and 
both  from  Asia ;  when  I  smelt  Brim- 
stone which  I  saw  steaming  out  of  a 
very  high  Mountain,1  that  incommoded 
me  so  much  that  I  fainted  away  upon  it. 
I  cannot  tell  what  befel  me  after- 
wards; but  coming  to  my  self  again,  I 
found  I  was  amongst  Briers  on  the  side 
of  a  Hill,  amidst  some  Shepherds,  who 
spoke  Italian.  I  knew  not  what  was 
become  of  my  Spirit,  and  I  asked  the 
Shepherds  if  they  had  not  seen  him. 
At  that  word  they  made  the  sign  of  the 
Cross,  and  looked  upon  me  as  if  I  had 
been  a  Devil  my  self :  But  when  I  told 
them  that  I  was  a  Christian,  and  that  I 
begg'd  the  Charity  of  them,  that  they 
would  lead  me  to  some  place  where  I 
might  take  a  little  rest ;  they  conducted 
me  into  a  Village,  about  a  Mile  off; 
where  no  sooner  was  I  come  but  all  the 
Dogs  of  the  place,  from  the  least  Cur 
to  the  biggest  Mastiff,  flew  upon  me, 
and  had  torn  me  to  pieces,  if  I  had  not 
found  a  House  wherein  I  saved  my 

1  Vesuvius. 


Return  to  the   Earth      217 

self:  But  that  hindered  them  not  to 
continue  their  Barking  and  Bawling, 
so  that  the  Master  of  the  House  began 
to  look  upon  me  with  an  Evil  Eye ;  and 
really  I  think,  as  people  are  very  appre- 
hensive when  Accidents  which  they 
look  upon  to  be  ominous  happen,  that 
man  could  have  delivered  me  up  as  a 
Prey  to  these  accursed  Beasts,  had  not 
I  bethought  my  self  that  that  which 
madded  them  so  much  at  me,  was  the 
World  from  whence  I  came;  because 
being  accustomed  to  bark  at  the  Moon, 
they  smelt  I  was  come  from  thence,  by 
the  scent  of  my  Cloaths,  which  stuck  to 
me  as  a  Sea-smell  hangs  about  those  who 
have  been  long  on  Ship-board,  for  some 
time  after  they  come  ashore.  To  Air 
myself  then,  I  lay  three  or  four  hours  in 
the  Sun,  upon  a  Terrass-walk ;  and  being 
afterwards  come  down,  the  Dogs,  who 
smelt  no  more  that  influence  which  had 
made  me  their  Enemy,  left  barking,  and 
peaceably  went  to  their  several  homes. 
Next  day  I  parted  for  Rome,  where  I 
saw  the  ruins  of  the  Triumphs  of  some 


21 8     A  Voyage  to  the  Moon 

great  men,  as  well  as  of  Ages :     I  ad- 
mired  those   lovely   Relicks;    and  the 
Repairs  of  some  of  them  made  by  the 
Modern.      At    length,    having    stayed 
there  a  fortnight  in  Company  of  Mon- 
sieur de  Cyrano  my  Cousin,   who   ad- 
vanced  me   Money  for  my  Return,  I 
went  to  Civita  vecchia,  and  embarked 
in  a  Galley  that  carried  me  to  Marseilles. 
During  all  this  Voyage,  my  mind  run 
upon  nothing  but  the  Wonders  of  the 
last  I  made.     At  that  time  I  began  the 
Memoires  of  it;    and  after  my  return, 
put  them  into  as  good  order,  as  Sick- 
ness, which  confines  me  to  Bed,  would 
permit.     But   foreseeing,   that    it   will 
put   an   end    to   all    my   Studies,    and 
Travels ; '  that  I  may  be  as  good  as  my 
word  to  the  Council  of  that  World ;    I 
have  begg'd  of  Monsieur  le  Bret,  my 
dearest  and  most  constant  Friend,  that 
he  would  publish  them  with  the  His- 
tory of  the  Republick  of  the  Sun,  that  of 
the  Spark,  and  some  other  Pieces  of  my 
Composing,  if  those  who  have  Stolen 

'Fr.,  "travaux,"  i.e.,  old  English  Travails. 


Return  to  the  Earth      219 

them  from  us  restore  them  to  him,  as  I 
earnestly  adjure  them  to  do. l 

1  The  Manuscript  of  the  BibliothSque  Nationale 
ends  differently:  "I  enquired  at  the  port  when  a 
ship  would  leave  for  France.  And  when  I  was 
embarked,  my  mind  ran  upon  nothing  but  the 
Wonders  of  my  Voyage.  I  admired  a  thousand 
times  the  Providence  of  God  who  had  set  apart 
these  naturally  Infidel  men  in  a  place  by  them- 
selves where  they  could  not  corrupt  his  Beloved ; 
and  had  punished  them  for  their  pride  by  abandon- 
ing them  to  their  own  self-sufficiency.  Likewise  I 
doubt  not  that  he  has  put  off  till  now  the  sending 
of  any  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  them,  for  the  very 
reason  that  he  knew  they  would  receive  it  ill ;  and 
so,  hardening  their  hearts,  it  would  serve  but  to 
make  them  deserve  the  harsher  punishment  in  the 
world  to  come." 

This  is  very  likely  the  original  ending  of  the 
work  as  it  was  circulated  in  Manuscript  between 
1649  and  l655-  In  any  case,  the  particular  thrust- 
and-parry  used  here  is  a  favorite  stroke  with  the 
"libertins"  of  the  epoch  in  their  duels  against 
*'  Les  Prejuges."  "  These  are  not  my  opinions  and 
arguments, "they say;  "Heaven forbid!  .  .  .  They 
only  express  the  ideas  of  my  characters — which  of 
course  I  abhor."  At  the  same  time  the  arguments 
have  been  stated,  which  was  the  object  in  view. 
Cyrano  has  several  times  used  this  method  already, 
notably  at  the  end  of  Chapter  xvi. 

The  ending  in  the  text  above,  that  of  all  the 
editions,  may  have  been  substituted  by  Cyrano 
himself  during  his  last  illness. 

FINIS. 


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